150 B. SHIMEK PLEISTOCENE OF SIOUX FALLS AND VICINITY 



Harrisburg to Canton is 185 feet/^ but the station at Canton is 30 feet or 

 more below the general level of the plain near by. 



As already noted, this plain is cut by valleys of varying depth, and 

 these, together with road and railway cuts, reveal t3'pical Kansan drift 

 over all that part of it here discussed. A series of such exposures may be 

 seen between Shindlar and the Big Sioux Eiver along the Chicago, Eock 

 Island and Pacific Eailway ; along the wagon road in section 35, township 

 100 north, range 49 west, and near the northwest corner of section 28 and 

 the southeast corner of section 16 of the same township; near the north- 

 west corner of section 18, township 99 north, range 48 west ; near the 

 northeast corner of section 20, township 99 north, range 48 west; near 

 the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of section 29, township 99 

 north, range 48 west; south of the northwest corner of section 28, town- 

 ship 98 north, range 49 west, and elsewhere. Moreover, the bluff sections 

 on the South Dakota side between Canton and Granite, which simply 

 represent cut edges of the great plain, show typical Kansan drift plainly. 

 The sections numbered 6, 10, and 11 are of this kind (number 10 being 

 especially satisfactory), because they are not on the face of the bluff, 

 wherewhere displacement might take place, but were cut directly into the 

 strata of the plain, here somewhat elevated. 



The Kansan drift of this plain is very calcareous and in other respects 

 is like the drift of the uplands throughout this region, both weathered 

 and unweathered phases appearing. 



"The Altamont moraine." — As noted in the earlier part of this paper, 

 the elevations south and southeast of Sioux Falls, the knobs near Canton, 

 and the ridge extending southAvard from a point about 3 miles south of 

 Canton have been regarded as a part of the xA.ltamont moraine of the 

 Wisconsin drift. The foregoing discussion brings out the fact that on 

 these ridges there is no Wisconsin drift whatever. 



The great ridge south of Canton, at least to the line extending west 

 from Fairview, shows weathered Kansan drift at the surface northward 

 and Kansan drift covered with two loesses southward. The whole mass is 

 evidently of the same structure and origin as the great uplands on the 

 Iowa side of the Big Sioux in Lyon County and southward and belongs 

 with them. 



The knobs northeast of Canton, particularly that in section 7, township 

 98 north, range 48 west, and thai in section 20, township 99 north, range 

 48 west, are certainly Kansan, and are evidently also related to the up- 

 lands on the Iowa side. 



i^According to elevations in Gannett's Dictionary of Altitudes, 



