934 ROLLIN D. SALISBURY 



to the lake. The loess is here rich in calcareous concretions, 

 and in gastropod shells of the types which abound in the loess. 

 It also posesses the normal loess texture and structure. Indeed 

 much of it is not wanting in a single distinctive loess character- 

 istic. Bones of small mammals, as yet unidentified, were found 

 at this point, at least ten feet below the top of the loess, and in 

 such relations as to make it certain that the loess had not been 

 disturbed or the bones introduced since the deposition of the 

 formation. The loess here lies against a steep slope of sand- 

 stone and quartzite, and occasionally contains fragments of 

 each. 



A few rods away, at the same, or approximately the same 

 level, an exposure in an isolated remnant of the terrace shows 

 it to be made up of sand interbedded with loam which approaches 

 loess in texture. The sand and loam are distinctly stratified and 

 the stratification appears to be the work of water. The sand 

 and loam at this exposure do not lie against a rock slope and no 

 stones or pebbles were found in it. 



The occurrence of loess at Ablemans is of special interest 

 because it connects itself with the deposits of the lake which for- 

 merly occupied the valley of the Baraboo above the city of the 

 same name. The lake was called into existence because the ice 

 blocked the eastward drainage of the valley. It was maintained 

 for a short time after the ice retired by the moraine dam which 

 it left just above the City of Baraboo, Its position in a ravine 

 through which glacial drainage did not flow, is also of sig- 

 nificance. 



The loess at Devil's Lake and at Ablemans, like that in the 

 vicinity of Green Lake, was certainly deposited by water, and 

 by water associated with the ice of the last glacial epoch. With 

 the loess of Ablemans is to be correlated the clay in the valley 

 of the Baraboo exposed at various points above the city, and the 

 loams and clays, some of which are very loess-like, in the val- 

 leys of Seeley's and Narrow's creeks south of the Baraboo. The 

 loam at Logansville in one of these valleys was seen many years 

 ago to contain shells, and to be in other ways, somewhat loess- 



.ii^n 



