6o8 REVIEWS 



WiNCHELL, N. H. The Lansmg Skeletott. Am. Geol., Vol. XXX, pp. 189- 

 q4, 1902. 



These papers, with the exception of the second one by Williston, pertain to 

 human remains found on the Concannon farm near Lansing, Kan., in a tunnel 

 which had been extended into the Missouri River bluff. The remains were found 

 just above a rock shelf which is covered to a depth of 25 feet or more by an earthy 

 material which by Upham and Winchell is thought to be loess of lowan age, but 

 by Chamberlin is considered postglacial, and the product of aggradation at the 

 mouth of a small tributary of the Missouri. Chamberlin's interpretation is indorsed 

 by Calvin and Salisbury in brief statements which appear in connection with his 

 paper. Williston's opinion, based upon the condition of the skeleton, would give it a 

 respectable antiquity. Holmes considers the skeleton that of an Indian, and doubts 

 if it is of great antiquity. 



The second paper by Williston discusses the occurrence of an arrowhead and 

 bison bones in a deposit which seems to be loess-like in character and possibly of 

 lowan age. 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Shimek, B. The Loess of Natchez, Mississippi. Am. Geol., Vol. XXX, pp. 



279-99, Pis. X-XVI, 1902. 



More than fifty exposures of loess were examined at Natchez and several at 

 Vicksburg. It was found that the thickness had been overestimated by earlier inves- 

 tigators. Instead of 50 or 60 feet, its maximum thickness is only 25 or 30 feet. Like 

 the northern loess, it mantles the slopes as well as the divides. Like the Missouri 

 River loess, it is coarse and contains much lime. The molluscan fauna is, however, 

 different from that of the northern loess, there being no pond species intermingled 

 with the terrestrial species such as occur in the northern loess. The entire list of 

 species are not only terrestrial, but all are now found living either on the hills in the 

 immediate vicinity or in similar situations in other parts of the South. Some of the 

 most characteristic and widely distributed species of the northern loess are wholly 

 absent, and others very rare in the southern loess. Eighteen species are thus far 

 known only from the loess of the South. The author holds that the Natchez loess 

 furnishes weighty arguments against both the aqueous and glacial theories of the 

 origin of the loess. The aqueous theory is unsupported by traces of beaches and 

 shore lines, etc., and the fossils are so fragile that it is considered highly improbable 

 that they were transported by water. There is also nothing in the molluscan fauna 

 which would suggest even the remotest possibility of a glacial climate, for the species 

 are in large part such as inhabit the warmer parts of our country today. The author 

 therefore concludes that the aeoiian theory offers the best explanation of the origin of 

 the southern loess. The paper is illustrated by photographs of the exposures and 

 drawings of many of the loess fossils, 



LOUISIANA. 

 Harris, G. D. Quaternary Geology atid Water Supplies in the Missis- 

 sippi Embayment. Geol. Survey of Louisiana, Kept, for 1902, pp. 32-39, 

 215-52. 



The Orange Sand is a deposit thought to have been under conditions of rising 

 shore or falling sea-level, without definite time in the geological scale. Port Hudson 

 clay is apparently a deposit made in a broad marsh or in shallow lakes during a long- 



