42 THE PKESENCE OF SEA SALT IN LOESS 



The entire absence of marine remains in this as in 

 other forms of the Rubble-drift might seem a grave 

 objection to the hypothesis of Submergence. But if 

 the conclusion that I have drawn from the physical 

 conditions be correct, the submergence was slow and 

 not attended by any such inrush of water as would 

 carry before it the marine exuviae and pebbles of the 

 shore, whilst the absence of marine sedimentation 

 shows the submergence to have been a transient one. 

 The turbidity of the waters would also be fatal to 

 animal life, and a lengthened time would be necessary 

 for the introduction of a new fauna from adjacent 

 districts. , 



Since the reading of my paper at the Eoyal 

 Society, some analyses made in the Agricultural 

 Laboratory at Gembloux tend to corroborate the sea- 

 flood origin of Loess, though further observations 

 are needed before this connection can be fully estab- 

 lished. It would appear that in certain districts of 

 Belgium, the Loess is largely impregnated with salt. 1 

 In one instance the proportion of chloride of sodium 

 was as much as 1*17 per cent. ; in another 1*15 per 

 cent., and in a third 0*407 per cent. At the same 

 time, the presence of land shells such as Helix 

 hispida and Pupa tnarginata shows the land origin 

 of the sediment itself. In general the Loess is so 

 permeable that the rain-water would remove any salt 

 that there might have been left in it, but in some 



1 " Sur la Presence du Sel Marin dans quelques Types de Limon, 

 par Xavier Stainier," Bulletin de F Agriculture de Belgique, Journal 

 Officiel. Volume for 1893. 



