Hekshey.] 



The River Terraces of the Orleans Basin, 



On the whole, the observer is impressed with the fact that this 

 is not neai'ly as red a terrace as those higher. 



The seventy-foot terrace has no marked characteristics. 1 1 

 buries several channels and has a sloping surface. The reddish 

 brown flood-plain deposits are rather thin. There are no prom- 

 inent torrent fans and few landslides in connection with it. The 

 gravels are moderately coarse. The total thickness of the depos- 

 its is less than in the case of any other terrace. The prevailing 

 color is reddish brown, of the same tint as in the 120-foot 

 terrace. 



The forty-five-foot terrace is characterized by coarse gravel 

 in heavy beds, a flood-plain deposit more sandy than usual, an 

 even surface with no alluvial fans except at the mouths of 

 several creeks (and they are not prominent), no landslides, and 

 a dark brown color. This terrace may be described as the flat 

 valley floor. The dark brown sandy soil at its surface contrasts 

 strongly with the red clay soil of the other terraces. 



The Modern river deposits are similar in coarseness to those 

 of the lower terrace, but the sand beds have a light brown 

 rather than a dark brown color. 



RELATTON TO NEIGHBORING GLACIAL DEPOSITS. 



A the mouth of the North Fork of Pearch Creek, three miles 

 east of Orleans, there is a morainie patch about 100 x 200 feet 

 in area and forty to sixty feet deep. The first flood in the fall 

 of 1903 made a fresh excavation along the base of the perpen- 

 dicular bank, showing the glacial deposit in a perfectly fresh 

 condition. The lower portion is a dark blue-gray stiff clay, 

 abounding in angular and subangular rock fragments up to 

 three feet in diameter. The dark bluish color is largely due to 

 its clay base, containing much finely ground black slate. The 

 upper portion to a depth of at least ten feet is oxidized to a 

 light brown color. Most of the rock fragments are smoothed 

 on one or more sides, many of them distinctly scratched and 

 some beautifully striated. In fact, for a glacial deposit, scratched 

 stones are more than usually abundant. The fragments 

 represent all the varieties of rocks occurring thence to the head 

 of the valley, including black slate, granite, diabase, diorite, 



