QUATERNARY AGE. 273 



than did this view from Pilgrim Hill. Another view, equally ma- 

 jestic is on the Missouri, back of lona, in Dixon County. My at- 

 tention was directed to it by John HiH, Esq., who took me to a 

 high point for observing the river, which can here be seen for a 

 great distance. The alternations of lofty bluff and bottom, wood- 

 land and prairie, give a picture worthy the pencil of the most gifted 1 

 artist, and of all who love the grand and picturesque in nature. It 

 is true that such scenes are rare, but then there are many landscapes' 

 which, if not grand, are still of wonderful beauty. This is the case 

 along most of the bluffs of the principal rivers. In Northern Ne~ 

 braska these bluffs often reach two hundred or more feet in height,, 

 and this perhaps gives this portion of the State the most varied 

 scenery. At some points these bluffs are rounded off and melt 

 beyond into a gently-rolling plain. But they constantly vary, and 

 following them you come now into a beautiful cove, now to a curi- 

 ous headland, then to terraces, and, however far you travel, you in 

 vain look for a picture like the one just passed. Numerous rounded 

 tips, with strangely precipitous sides, are seen in every hour's 

 travel, and these, as they form bold curves, rampart like, stretch 

 away into the distance and form images of the most impressive 

 beauty. Indeed, the bluffs of the Loess deposits are unique, and 

 Ruskin cannot exhaust the subject of the beautiful until he sees 

 and studies the hills of Nebraska. 



Origin of the Loess Deposits. Richthoferfs Theory. In a paper on 

 " The Superficial Deposits of Nebraska," which was published in 

 the Hay den Reports for 1874, I attributed the formation of the 

 Loess deposits to subaqueous agency. Since then renewed atten- 

 tion has been given to the Loess, which has been stimulated by 

 Baron Von Richthofen's great work on the Loess of northeastern 

 China. He took the ground, as a few American geologists had 

 previously suggested, that the Loess was a subaerial formation.* 

 So cogent is his reasoning that some American geologists, who I 

 am satisfied had never thoroughly studied the American Loess in 

 place, have been converted to his views. An examination, there- 

 fore, of this reference here, is not out of place, especially as this 

 theory, if true, would have the most important application to the 

 climatology of the plains. 



Richthofen's theory is that the Loess of China, and the Loess 

 everywhere, was formed on dessicated regions covered by scanty 

 grasses, by the action through countless centuries of strong winds. 

 18 



