208 EARTH FEATURES AND THEIR MEANING 



By the feet of passing animals or by wheels of vehicles, the loess 

 is crushed, and a portion is lifted and carried away by the wind. 

 Thus in the course of time roadways sink deep into the mass as 

 steep-walled canons (Fig. 217). A portion of the now structure- 

 less clay remaining upon the roadway is at the time of the rains 

 transformed into a thick mud which makes traveling all but 

 impossible, though before its structure has been destroyed the 

 loess is perfectly drained to the bottom of its deposits. 



The particles which compose the loess are sharply angular 

 quartz fragments, so fine that all but a few grains can be rubbed 

 into the pores of the skin. Fine scales of mica, such as are easily 

 lifted by the wind, are disseminated uniformly throughout the 

 mass. The only inclosures which are arranged in layers consist 

 of irregularly shaped concretions of clay. These show a striking 

 resemblance to ginger roots and are called by the Chinese "stone 

 ginger," though they are elsewhere more generally known by 

 their German name of Loessmdnnchen, or loess dolls. These 

 concretions are so disposed in the loess that their longer axes are 

 vertical, and they were evidently separated from the mass and 

 not deposited with it. 



