68 PLEISTOCENE OF INDIANA AND MICHIGAN. 



Scarcely 100 yards east of this road the bluff showed material change, as appears in the 

 following section: 



Section of Ohio River bluff' 100 yards east of Deyss private road. 



Feet. 



Loess, brown, loose textured 15 



' Clay, white, close textured 6 



Clay, sandy, with layers of pebbles, not bronzed 13 



Gravel, coarse, not bronzed 3 



Gravel, bronzed, in cemented bed ' 1 



Gravel, bronzed, uncemented 31 



69 



In passing from the exposure last given westward to the wagon road the upper part of the 

 Dronzed gravel gives place to the sandy marbled-brown clay with pebbly layers about as a 

 rock formation gives place to a drift deposit where the drift appears in the lee of a rock cliff 

 in glaciated districts. The fossiliferous loess of the first exposure is not represented in the 

 second and appears, therefore, to be a local deposit. Veatch 1 has called attention to other 

 sections in this vicinity somewhat different from either of these and as difficult to interpret. 



BURIED SOIL. 



The occurrence of two drift sheets separated by a black soil or humus-stained gummy 

 clay is most common in Putnam and Owen counties. Indeed, the present writer was unable 

 to learn of any instances of it in the southwestern counties, the black material in the latter 

 region being usually beneath all the glacial deposits. The same is true in most places in south- 

 eastern Indiana. This soil in Putnam and Owen counties was discussed by Collett 3 in an 

 early report, as follows: 



Wells to the number of 8 or 10 in the village [Quincy] at a depth of 15 to 30 feet pierce a black mucky soil con- 

 taining brush, trees, leaves, grass, etc. This unctuous clay is characteristically lacustral. It is underlaid with quick- 

 sand and fine glacial gravel. 



One of the wells in the village gave the following exhibit: 



Section in Quincy well. 



Ft. in. 



Soil, black 1 8 



Clay, white and gray, with crawfish pipes, with little sand, no pebbles , 10 



Clay, blue, with pebbles 3 



Clay, black, mucky, with brush and plant remains 3 



Hardpan and fine pebbles 3 



Gravel, coarse, and bowlders (depth unknown) 3 



23 8 



The trunks found in the above were of trees 4 to 5 inches in diameter, generally crushed or broken to pieces. The 

 insertion of the branches was opposite or alternate like fir or ash and the rings of growth were compressed and fine, 

 as if subject to a cold climate. 



The present writer obtained records of wells near Quincy that passed through much more 

 black mucky clay than is reported in the above section. In L. M. Combs's well, one-half mile 

 east of the village, it extends from 14 to 28 feet below the surface; in G. W. Raikes's well, 2 miles 

 west, it extends from 13 to 31 feet; and in O. W. Eaikes's well, a short distance farther 

 west, it extends from 8 to 40 feet. In each of these wells water-bearing gravel and sand 

 underlie the black muck. Another well with a large amount of the black mucky clay was 

 made by Samuel Beman 1^ miles northeast of Cataract, in the midst of the preglacial valley 

 of Eel River. Its record, as interpreted by exposure in neighboring ravines, is as follows: 



i Jour. Geology ,.vol. 6, 189S, pp. 264-268. 



2 Collett, John, Seventh Ann. Eept. Geol. Survey Indiana, 1875, p. 319. 



