GENEKAL COXCLUSIOXS. 69 



Other objections to an eolian origin of tlie American 

 loess have been made. These refer especially to some 

 geographical features, which cannot be considered here, 

 but which will nevertheless have to be taken into account 

 in a full discussion of the subject. Some distinguished 

 American students of this puzzling formation appear in- 

 clined to suspend judgment or to ascribe its genesis to sev- 

 eral distinct processes. Though the eolian hypothesis has 

 been more or less considered by all geologist who have 

 had occasion to study the loess, it seems that the nature 

 of the work really performed by the atmosphere is too 

 imperfectly known to admit, as yet, of any thorough dis- 

 cussion of the efficiency or inefficiency of the wind as a 

 loess-maker in America. A study of this work should 

 precede a final verdict on the origin of this formation, and 

 this thought has been a stimulus wdiile pursuing the 

 studies whose results are here recorded. Further studies 

 of this kind coupled with a careful examination of the 

 loess and associated silts in all their varied phases 

 promise to aid in the eventual solution of the "problem 

 of the loess". 



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