S. V. Wood—Origin of the Loess. 389 
I].—FurtHER REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE LOEsS. 
By 8. V. Woop, F.G.S. 
N the August number of this Magazine, Mr. Howorth has 
challenged the view which J have advanced of the origin of 
the Loess (in common with the intrusive cave earth, the Warp of 
Trimmer, and the Trail of Fisher), from the slide of the upper and 
annually thawing layer of the permanently frozen soil, in the parts 
beyond the limit of the land-ice during the major and minor glacia- 
tions ; or, as regards areas covered with sea during the major, from 
this process during the minor glaciation only. 
It is not my intention to enter into any controversy on the subject 
of the Loess with Mr. Howorth, because, though far from dissenting 
from the occurrence of a great flood annually in the valleys of New 
England, when the land-ice which enveloped the New England 
mountains was melting during the wane of the major glaciation, as 
described by Prof. Dana, I am incapable of following Mr. Howorth’s 
arguments in support of a general “ Great Post-Glacial Flood.” His 
challenge, however, induces me to lay before the readers of this 
MaGazine some facts bearing upon the views broached by me, which 
had not come under my notice at the time of my previous paper on 
the subject, or at that of the publication of the second part of my 
memoir on the Newer Pliocene period in England, in the Quarterly 
Journal of the Geological Society for November, 1882. 
The first of these is the remarkable ice formation of North Alaska. 
This formation is (in the Amer. Journ. of Science, for February, 
1881,) thus described by W. H. Dall, the Assistant in charge of the 
schooner employed on the coast of Alaska, in his report to the 
Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Landing on the 2nd September, at Elephant Point, on the Alaska 
shore of the Arctic Sea, some hundreds of miles north-east of Behring 
Strait, Mr. Dall found, as he proceeded along the beach, ‘“ the banks 
chiefly composed of volcanic breccia or a slaty gneissoid rock. 
These rose 15 to 50 feet in height above the sea, rising inland to 
hilly slopes, without peaks and probably not attaining more than 
300 or 400 feet anywhere in the vicinity.” Passing eastward along 
the beach these banks became lower and the rise inland less, and the 
rock changed to a greyish clay containing much vegetable matter 
(which in some places was ‘in strata in the clay, and in others in- 
discriminately mixed with it,”) near the beginning of which was a 
layer of bog moss containing marl of freshwater shells, Pisidium, 
Valvata, etc., about six inches thick. A little beyond this a perpen- 
dicular surface of ice appeared in the face of the bank, solid and free 
from mixture of soil, except on the outside. ‘This continued to 
increase slowly in height eastward. The ice was covered ‘“ with a 
coating of soil two or three feet thick, on which luxuriant vegetation 
was growing,” and presented two faces to the beach, the lower and 
nearest rising to about 30 feet, and a higher and hinder to about 60 
feet, each covered with a talus. ‘Thence the land rose gradually to 
a rounded ridge reaching the height of 300 or 400 feet only, at a 
