HUMAN RELICS OF LANSING, KANSAS 77 l 



various lower levels at different points, and connected with the 

 second moraine of the Wisconsin stage, and 3) a complex sys- 

 tem of "silt terraces" ranging from 150 feet downward, three 

 or four of these terraces often occurring at the same locality. 

 These last have not been traced into physical continuity with 

 any of the moraines, and doubtless represent in part the very 

 latest stages of glaciation, and in larger part the postglacial 

 stages ranging down to very recent times. A reference to Todd's 

 descriptions will show that these are not mere strands or slender 

 benches on the valley sides, but great platforms, sometimes a 

 mile or two broad. Now all of these three systems, so magnifi- 

 cently developed in Dakota, should ideally be represented in 

 some way at the Lansing locality, but we have only the obscure, 

 sloping shoulders already described, and the little deposit con- 

 taining the relics. There is no sign that these belong to the 

 first or second of the Dakota series which are directly connected 

 with the first and second stages of the Wisconsin glaciation. In 

 Dakota these terraces are formed of very coarse material, which 

 gives them the title " bowldery," and this implies strong cur- 

 rents fed by glacial debris. Normally, these high bowldery 

 terraces should graduate down-stream into finer gravels, sands 

 and silts, all bearing the distinctive marks of their glacio-fluvial 

 origin. The relic-bearing deposit is not of this type, and is not 

 overlain by this type. The most natural inference then is that 

 the train of glacial gravels, sands and silts borne away by the 

 Missouri waters from the ice edge in the more vigorous stages 

 of Wisconsin glaciation was carried away from this part of the 

 Missouri channel before the relic deposits were formed. This is 

 the more to be supposed because the Missouri has here recently 

 run hard against the highlands and truncated them, and the 

 tributary valleys are steep and in this special case, short and 

 rather sharp. Remnants of the true glacio-fluvial deposits in 

 this portion of the Missouri river are rare, and an experienced 

 Pleistocene geologist familiar with their habit would not expect 

 to find them in the mouth of so narrow, steep-sided, and steep- 

 bottomed a tributary as that at Concannon's. The probable 

 reason for the scantiness of the glacio-fluvial record in this part 



