150 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Second Report of Collett. 



As usual, Collett begins the report with a chapter on the general "Geology 

 of Indiana," including a table on the quarry industries of the State, compiled 

 by the U. S. Census Bureau, a chapter on oolitic limestone, with analyses, 

 another embodying the results of the phj'sieal tests showing the "transverse 

 strength and elasticity of all building stones" from Indiana and other States, 

 made for the State House Commissioners before letting the contract for the 

 present edifice. 



Following these are reports on Shelljy County by Collett, Fountain County 

 by R. T. Brown, Delaware County by A. J. Phinney and Bartholomew 

 County by Dr. M. N. Elrod, each accompanied by a double page outline 

 map. 



Under Shelby County, Collett describes what he called the "Collett 

 Glacial Ri\er," so named by Dr. J. L. Campbell, Prof, of Geology and Civil 

 Engineering in Wabash College, and former president of the Academy of 

 Science, who at that time was also connected with the U. S. Geodetic Survey. 

 He furnished Collett a letter published in the report on Shelby County, 

 giving the main facts regarding this old valley. Of it Collett says: "(^rossing 

 the western bounds of Shelby County, this great stream of water and ice- 

 bergs impinges against and is obstructed by the hilly district of Brown and 

 Johnson Counties having an elevation of 400 to 500 feet above the valley, 

 and is deflected south perpendicular to the dij) or along the strike of the rocks 

 to the southern boundary of the State at .JefTersonville. This valley is a 

 wonderful e.\liil)ition of energy and forces which have ceased to exist. The 

 volume may be estimated by the amount of the erosion, which exhibits a 

 width of five to ten miles, and depth of 300 to 500 feet as measured by the 

 wall-Hke bluflfs of the adjoining high lands. The mighty ships which sailed 

 upon this river sea were silvery bergs of ice, scattering boulders along its 

 shore line, or in its depths as discovered in deep wells in Scott and Clark 

 Counties, its broad eastern pathway indicated by Lower Silurian fossils, 

 found in Ohio and eastern Indiana. Economically it furnished an inclined 

 plane, utilized as the roadway of the railroad from Indianapolis to Jefferson- 

 ville" and Campbell closes his letter with the following paragrai)h: "This 

 wide valley was cut in the otherwise level plane by the mighty river, wide and 

 deep, whose lite continued during the melting of the glacier, in the period 

 intermediate between the geo'ogic and the mod(;rn, but its tracings furnish 

 an interesting f(;ature in the topography of the State." 



In the report on Bartholomew County, Dr. Elrod also devoted two or 

 three pages to this same "glacial valley," he having added the nnme Valley 

 to the one used by Campbell and Collett. 



The last 200 i)ages of the volume, as well as 55 accompanying plates, 

 are devoted to two papers on paleontology. The first is a reprint of Prof. 

 James Hall's paper entitled "Descriptions of the species of Fossils found in 



