196 KANSAS CITY FREHISTORIC REMAINS. 



obstructions could not have been caused by ice of the glacier period, for the- 

 Bluff deposit was subsequent to the glacier time in this latitude, and, be- 

 sides, we find imbedded in the Loess numerous shells of the Helix asbora^ 

 H. concava, H. minata, and other land and fluviatile shells. These mol- 

 lusks could not have endured the cold of the glacier time, nor could they 

 have been transplanted from a warmer latitude. These obstructions being- 

 subsequently removed- by erosion, drained the lakes formed b}^ them, and 

 left our Bluff formation as we now find it. 



The shore line of the lowest level, or that corresponding to the second 

 or lower terrace, in the West Kansas bluff, may be traced by the line of rocky 

 precipice partially exposed, extending from the junction of Sixth street with 

 Bluff street, thence running by the way of the Coates Opera House, thence 

 deflecting northeasterly to the junction of Seventh and Main streets, thence 

 along Seventh street to Troost avenue, deflecting again northeasterly, cutting 

 Independence Avenue at its junction with Forest Avenue, and then along the 

 bluffs west of Dykington Park, to the river bottom. The superincumbent 

 strata had been entirely removed down to the Bethany Falls limestone, in 

 this entire area and extending to the river, and embracing part of Wyan- 

 dotte City, before the loess deposit began. The lake had now receded to- 

 within the denuded area here defined, and extended to the bluff and some 

 way up Line Creek north of the river, and up Turkey Creek valley to the 

 vicinity of Eosedale, south. This is the last level of the loess, which in this- 

 last mentioned area, is from eighty to one hundred feet in thickness. 



Farther evidence of the gradual retiring of the lake waters with inter- 

 vals of more or less accelerated or retarded recession, and that the old 

 channel of the Kansas river had its outlet along the line I have indicated.. 

 is to be found in an old channel which was formed about the time of the last 

 level of the lake extending from the old channel of the Kansas river, in the 

 south part of the city, to what was then the current of the Missouri river 

 about the margin of the bluffs on the south side. This old channel may be 

 traced along the general course of Main street to about Fifth street, where, 

 bending northeastwardly, it was divided into two channels, one encounter- 

 ing the current of the Missouri about the foot of Grand avenue, and the 

 other about the terminus of Charlotte street, at the brink of the bluffs. The 

 evidence of the former existence of this channel is very conclusive and is to be 

 found in the great quantity of land and fluviatile shells which lie imbedded 

 in the loess where the water discharged through the old channel, encoun- 

 tered the current of the Missouri and was arrested by it, forming eddies- 

 into which the shells drifted and were covered by successive layers of sedi- 

 ment. Shells are not found here in the Loess except where their motion in 

 drifting with the current has been arrested by opposing currents, so that 

 they are encountered only at the two places where the current of the chan- 

 nel encountered the Missouri's current at the brink of the bluffs about the 

 river terminus of Charlotte street and Grand avenue. 



It was in this last level of Bluff' deposit, and upon the east slope of the 



