GLACIAL DRIFT UNDER THE SAINT LOUIS LOESS 



J. ANDREW DRUSHEL 



Teachers College, St. Louis, Mo. 



Glacial drift in the vicinity of St. Louis seems to have been described 

 first by Professor A. H. Worthen, in 1866.' In 1890, Professor G. 

 Frederick Wright^ reported glacial drift in the following localities 

 within the city hmits: (i) Near Forest Park, on the road to Ferguson, 

 beneath 20 feet of loess was a bed of gravel 2 or 3 feet thick, which 

 contained granite and other pebbles two to three inches in diameter, 

 some finely striated; (2) at Hyde Park a similar section was seen; 

 (3) in the vicinity of Shaw's Garden, Loess had been removed for 

 brick making, uncovering extensively a gravelly stratum which con- 

 tained many granite pebbles. Striae were found on angular limestone 

 fragments. The elevation was 150 feet above the Mississippi River. 



H. A. Wlieeler, in a paper "On Glacial Drift in St. Louis," in 

 1895,3 reported blue glacial clay or till 12 feet thick, at West Pine 

 Boulevard and Taylor Avenue, extending westward to Euchd, under- 

 neath ID to 15 feet of loess. The diameter of the bowlders is said 

 not to exceed one foot. Among the erratics reported were red and 

 gray granite, diorite, dolerite, and quartz-porphyry. 



In 1896 James E. Todd^ described bowlder clay in St. Louis. His 

 section may still be seen on Laclede Ave. near Sarah St. The till is 

 8 feet thick, " a reddish brown or a waxy red clay," containing granite 

 and other foreign pebbles. The overlying loess is 16 feet thick. 



Frank Leverett, in his monograph on the Illinois Glacial Lobe,^ 

 reported deposits of glacial derivation underlying the loess for a few 



1 A. H. Worthen, Geology of Illinois, Vol. I, p. 3 14, 1866. 



2 G. F. Wright, "The Glacial Boundary in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ken- 

 tucky, Indiana, and Illinois," Bulletin §8, U. S. Geological Survey, p. 72, 1890. 



3 H. A. Wheeler, "On Glacial Drift in St. Louis," Transactions oj the St. Louis 

 Academy of Science, Vol. VII, pp. 121, 122, 1895. 



4 J, E. Todd, Missouri Geological Survey, Vol. X, pp. 162, 163, 1896. 



5 F. Leverett, The Illinois Glacial Lobe, Monograph XXXVIII, pp. 64, 71, 1899. 



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