588 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 119. 



Kansas City, to 825 feet, at Pilot Grove, in 

 Cooper county. Except in Lafayette, Pettis 

 and adjoining counties, it is never far beyond 

 the recognized limits of the drift sheet. Along 

 the Missouri river, especially at and near 

 Kansas City, two divisions of the loess are 

 recognized. The ' higher loess ' is that which 

 has the widest extension, being found nearly 

 everywhere in association with the drift sheet, 

 while the ' lower loess ' forms high terraces 

 along the Missouri valley. It is the latter 

 which has furnished most of the data concern- 

 ing the loess which have heretofore been re- 

 ported from Missouri. 



Much valuable information is given of the 

 trough of the Missouri river, and the ques- 

 tion of its age relative to the epoch of glacia- 

 tion of its vicinity is discussed in considerable 

 detail; also, the preglacial and present val- 

 leys of the Mississippi river between Mont- 

 rose and Keokuk, Iowa. The sections of the 

 old and new gorges are especially finely ex- 

 ecuted. 



In the discussion of the origin of the Mis- 

 souri Pleistocene formations, the following lead- 

 ing problems are recognized : 1. Waterlaid 

 character of the loess and gray loamy clay. 2. 

 Great difference of level between similar deposits 

 in Missouri and southern Illinois. 3. Vastness of 

 gorges of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. 

 4. Absence of drift in the lower Missouri. 

 The Missouri loess deposits are referred to a 

 fluvio-lacustrine origin. A barrier in the form 

 of a rocky ridge is supposed to have formerly 

 extended from the present divide between the 

 Osage and Glasconade rivers, across the pres- 

 ent course of the Missouri river, through War- 

 ren, Saint Charles, Pike and Ralls counties, to 

 and connecting with a ridge in Pike county, 

 Illinois. This barrier, by preventing free drain- 

 age toward the lowlands in southern Illinois, is 

 supposed to have enabled the waters flowing 

 away from the melting ice sheet to deposit the 

 loess and loamy clay on the drift plain to the 

 northwest of it, while a similar formation was 

 being laid down at a much lower level in the 

 country southeast of it. 



In summing up the Quaternary history of 

 Missouri, Chamberlin's classification of the 

 Pleistocene formations is adopted. The major 



portion of the drift proper is referred to the 

 Kansan epoch. The Aftonian interglacial 

 epoch is scarcely represented in Missouri, but 

 its effects may be recognized in slight valley 

 erosion, particularly in the extreme north- 

 western part of the State. During the lowan 

 epoch the ice sheet is believed to have again 

 advanced into territory now included in 

 Missouri, but to a less distance than formerly. 

 The loess is also referred to this epoch. The 

 succeeding Toronto and Wisconsin epochs are 

 inseparable in this state, but their effects con- 

 sisted largely of increased depth of stream ero- 

 sion. 



The present writer desires to suggest that the 

 idea that the distinctive deposit commonly 

 known as loess was deposited by broad semi- 

 lacustrine stream floods, originated from the 

 study of flat areas where the formation was 

 laid down as a nearly uniform sheet upon a 

 plain. This hypothesis would not have origi- 

 nated upon certain other areas, for instance, 

 the upper Mississippi region, where a loess of 

 the same age as that of Missouri and nearly 

 identical in the lithological features, mantles 

 almost equally as uniformly, a characteristic- 

 ally hilly land surface. Here, undoubtedly, a 

 purely lacustrine or possible semi-marine origin 

 must be assumed for the waterlaid silt and 

 loamy clay which covers hill-tops, slopes and 

 broad flat valley-bottoms alike. It may be 

 possible that the great difference in altitude be- 

 tween the toess-covered plain of southern 

 Illinois and the much more elevated drift and 

 loess plain of northern Missouri may be the 

 result solely of the original altitudinal diversity 

 of the preglacial land surface upon which they 

 are superimposed. The supposed barrier from 

 the Osage-Gasconade divide to the driftless ridge 

 in Pike county, Illinois, would thus become 

 unnecessary. O. H. Hershey. 



Angewandte Elektrochemie. Brster Band. Von 

 Dk. Franz Peters. Hartleben's Verlag, 

 Wien ; Leipzig. 



Electro-chemistry is one of the most recent 

 subdivisions of chemical science. The study of 

 its theoretical side has been most actively pro- 

 moted and splendid results have been brought 

 to light. Applied electro-chemistry is of even 



