Junk 1, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



327 



uate light and darker bands. Archimedes is a grand object 

 when the sun is either rising or setting upon it Aristillus, 

 34 miles across, has a central mountain, shown in our 

 sketch. I'nder rather more oblique illumination, ridges, 

 like lava streams, may be seen radiating from the outer 

 ring. Autolycus, L'3 miles in diameter, is tolerably deep, 

 but calls for no more special description here. 



Erbati M. — On p. 20i the order of tho sketches of llcssior is 

 curiously inverted. Of course, that taken when slie was 31)5 days 

 old should stand first ; next should como tho one showin"; its aspect 

 at full moon ; while the drawing made when the moon's age was 

 17'8 days should stand third and last. 



AGE OF THE MISSOURI. 



Bv E. P. West.* 



THE Missouri, one of the grandest rivers of the world, 

 washes the northern limit of Kansas City. We wit- 

 ness its annual Hoods, garnered liy the vast accumulations 

 of winter's snows in the faroft' elevations of the Itocky 

 Mountains. We see, year by year, the devastations caused 

 by its wild waste of waters. We observe it, in its gentler 

 moods, freighted with the products of many nations, de- 

 stined to swell the commerce and add to the convenience and 

 comfort of the enlightened and happy people occupying the 

 environments of its picturesque shores. Generation after 

 generation, age after age, witnesses the same occurrences ; 

 and we are apt to associate this great river with the geologi- 

 cal formations cut by its turbid waters for all past time. But, 

 while it is one of the largest, and apparently one of the 

 oldest of rivers, it is, in truth, one of the youngest of this 

 continent. When the St. Lawrence, the Cumberland, the 

 Ohio, and the Upper Mississippi had attained their full 

 growth and supremacy over the countries now tributarj- to 

 them, the Missouri River was but in its infancy. When 

 their systems of drainage were complete, all the vast terri- 

 tory now tributary to the Missouri, which lies within the 

 limits of four great geological formations — namely, the 

 Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary, embracing a 

 part of Iowa, the most of the States of Kansas and 

 Kebraska, all of Colorado, and the territories of Wyoming, 

 Dakota, and Montana — were covered by an ocean. The 

 Missouri River was then but little more than four hundred 

 miles in length, and its drainage covered less than half of 

 Missouri and Iowa, and but a small part of the eastern 

 portions of Kansas and Nebraska, its headwaters being not 

 remote from Omaha, Nebraska. Then great reptiles, from 

 forty to ninety feet in length, sported in this vast e.xpanse 

 of ocean, which, with some interspersed islands, extended 

 westward over the western plains and Rocky ^Mountain 

 regions, covering the entire country now drained by the 

 Missouri River westward and north-westward of Omaha. 

 The eastern borders of Kansas and Nebraska formed a part 

 of the ocean's eastern shore line, and it was nowhere at a 

 greater distance than two hundred miles from the eastern 

 boundary of these States, the greatest distance being along 

 the Kansas border. 



The Triassic and Jurassic formations were the first to 

 emerge from this old western ocean. These formations are 

 exposed along a narrow strip of countrj-, extending through 

 Middle Kansas, and prolonged, perhaps, into Eastern 

 Nebraska, but greatly widening to the south-west through 

 the Indian Territory and Northern Texas. They added 

 but little to the drainage of the Missouri River, and are 

 conspicuous for the paucity of organic remains in them. 



* A Paper read before the Kansas City Institute. 



Next, the Cretaceous formation emerged and became dry 

 land. This added to the Missouri's drainage a broad belt 

 of country extending across Kansas and Nebraska, and 

 northward of Omaha, through Dakota Territory, increasing 

 the river's length more than four hundred miles, and adding 

 very materially to its western tributaries. This formation 

 is noted for the great abundance and gigantic proportions 

 of its fossil reptiles and numerous invertebrate forms, as 

 well as for several varieties of fossil wood, leaves, and 

 plants, closely approximating present living species. Lastly, 

 the Tertiary formation rose from the water, completing the 

 Rocky Mountain system, and the drainage of the Missouri 

 River to its present sources. By the uprising of this 

 formation the remainder of Kansas and Nebraska, the 

 most of Colorado, and the territories of Wyoming, Dakota, 

 and Montana were made tributary to the waters of the 

 Missouri. But we must not associate these various eleva- 

 tions with great catastrophes, or suppose them sudden or 

 violent, but, on the contrar}', we have reason to believe 

 them slow and gradual, requiring long ages in their accom- 

 plishment. We must not, either, consider the Missouri, 

 though among the youngest of rivers, so very young, 

 counting its age by years, or comparing it, even, 

 with man's duration upon earth, for it has witnessed 

 stupendous and long-continued changes since it at- 

 tained its majority and was adopted, full-grown, into 

 the family of American rivers. Though young in com- 

 parison with the other great rivers I have named, some 

 idea of its really great age may be formed when it is con- 

 sidered that the great and widespread mutations which 

 gave it birth and built up our western river systems, 

 occurred between the close of the Carboniferous age and 

 the end of Tertiary time. The upper carboniferous rocks 

 are to be found about Kansas City, and northward along 

 the western border of Jlissouri and eastern borders of 

 Kansas and Nebraska, and the Tertiary formations about 

 the elevations of the Rocky Mountains and over their 

 eastern slopes. 



Next in sequence followed the events alluded to as 

 having occurred since the Missouri river was increased to 

 the full measure of its present drainage, namely, the Glacial 

 and Champlain epochs which occurred in Post-Tertiary 

 time. First, the glacial period was ushered in : — 

 " Once the fierce Kabibonokka, 



Issued from his lodge of snow-drifts, 

 From his home among tho icebergs, 

 And his hair, with snow besprinkled, 

 Streamed behind him like a river, 

 Like a black and wintry river, 

 As he howled and hurried southward, 

 Over frozen lakes and moorlands." 



The entire country now tributary to the Missouri River 

 was elevated far above its present level, and vast glaciers, 

 thousands of feet in thickness, crept down from the north- 

 ward to about the parallel of Kansas City. But before the 

 country became mantled in snow and creeping rivers of 

 ice, the Missouri River had carved out a channel to an un- 

 known depth, but, perhaps, five hundred feet or more below 

 its present bed. The old channel is found to be choked up 

 with drift-sand and boulders, borne in by glacial action, 

 and by this means the river was partly, and perhaps 

 entirely, diverted in some places. These facts are made 

 apparent by the achievements of modern civil engineering 

 in overcoming obstacles to continuous railway transit. 

 Nine railway bridges now .span the Missouri River from 

 Omaha downward to its mouth. All of the bridges 

 approach one or the other of the river bluflTs — 

 generally those on the south side. In sinking 

 piers to support the superstructure, solid rock has 

 been found only on one side — i.e., the side touch- 



