H. H. HoworUi — A Great Tod-Glacial Flood. 75 



Having decided the origin of the Loess and black earth, we have 

 by no means solved all, or the main difficulty connected with these 

 paradoxical deposits. We have merely laid down the basis for the 

 real contention of this paper — namely, that a large part of the 

 Loess and Tchernozom are not in situ, but have been transported and 

 redeposited. This conclusion seems inevitable, if we consider certain 

 critical facts. 



The pouring out of volcanic mud would doubtless fill up and 

 choke the valleys in which the outburst took place, or the immediate 

 vicinity of the place, but it could not explain by itself the distribu- 

 tion of the ejected matter in a continuous mantle spread over valley 

 and hill irrespective of the drainage of the country. The upland 

 Loess spread so uniformly as it is in many places could only have 

 been brought there by some potent moving power. The extent to 

 which the Loess is found on the plateaux is really surprising. 

 Mr. Geikie says that in Moravia it is found at a height of 1300 feet, 

 while it stretches into the vallej'S of the Carpathians up to heights 

 of 800 and 2000 feet. In some cases even higher, namely, to 3000 

 feet, according to Zeuschner, and to 4000 or 5000 feet according to 

 Korzistka (Prehistoric Europe, p. 146). Again, he says, "It must 

 not be supposed that the Loess is restricted to valleys and de- 

 pressions in the surface of the ground. It is true that it attains in 

 these its greatest thickness, but extensive accumulations may often 

 be followed far into the intermediate hilly disti'icts, and over the 

 neighbouring plateaux. Thus the Odenwald, the Taunus, the 

 Vogelgebirge, and other upland tracts, are cloaked with Loess up to 

 a considerable height" (id.). Mr. Belt tells us that in the valleys 

 of the Khine, the Danube, and their tributaries, the Loess is found 

 to a great height above the present rivers. Near Basle he traced 

 it to the top of the hill, or a height of 1470 feet above the 

 sea, and 660 above the river. It covers the well-known volcanic 

 hill situated in the middle of the Ehine Valley, known as the 

 Kaizerstuhl, to a height of 1600 feet above the sea, and is also 

 spread over the volcanic hills of the Lower Eifel. Von Dechen 

 found it north of Andernach, near the hill of Korrets, at a height 

 of 620 feet; and Dr. Hibbert seems to have found it higher, for 

 he states that on the Mahlsberg it attains an elevation of 800 feet 

 above the sea, and 600 feet above the river, and is sometimes 60 feet 

 thick (Belt, Quart. Journ. of Science, N.S. vol. vii. p. 70). Speaking 

 of the neighbourhood of Blosenberg, the same writer says, " On 

 the hill-tops it occurs to 1100 feet or more, and Dr. Sandberger 

 informed me that it is sometimes thick on the hill-tops, and contains 

 the characteristic Loess shells, though not so abundantly as lower 

 down the valley" {id. p. 72). He tells ns again that "the Loess is 

 found up to a height of 1300 feet above the sea in the upper part 

 of the Danube Valley, and that the low hills bounding the valley, 

 near Krems, are all covered with Loess, and sections are exposed 

 showing a thickness of 60 feet without its base being seen" {id.). 

 In France, as M. d'Archiac says, it is found on high plateaux 600 

 feet above some of the rivers, such as the Marne ; while in Belgium 



