PAPERS ON THE LOESS. 



By B. Shimek. 



The question of the genesis of the loess of the Mississippi 

 valley has interested two generations of geologists. Until 

 quite recently the great majority of American writers on the 

 subject ascribed the deposition of the loess to water in some 

 form or manner. This general conclusion was fortified and 

 entrenched by a series of able papers by professors Chamber- 

 lin, Salisbury, McGee, Hilgard, and others, which appeared 

 in various journals and periodicals in the years 1878 to 1892. 

 A lull followed this period of activity. Some of the earlier 

 champions of the aqueous theory turned to other lines of effort, 

 and those who remained had little to say upon the subject in 

 a public way. But it is not just to judge of the latter class 

 today by their writings of several years ago, for some of the 

 ablest former advocates of the aqueous theory have materially 

 changed their views upon the subject. It is true that here 

 and there individual efforts were made to strengthen the 

 aqueous side of the case, and recently these have been more 

 frequently renewed largely for the purpose of sustaining 

 theories or views on related subjects. But it is safe to say 

 that no material facts have been added in a dozen years to 

 strengthen the aqueous theory 01 hypothesis. Those who 

 have recently argued in its favor have relied not so much upon 

 new confirmatory observations, as rather on the earlier utter- 

 ances of men whose more mature judgment and experience 

 today contradict their former views. 



The recent discussions of the Lansing skeleton have again 

 precipitated the question of the origin of the loess because of 

 the attempt to deduce the age of the skeleton from the age of 

 the deposit under which it was buried, and which was assumed 

 to be loess. 



