98 BULLETIN OF WISCONSIN NATL RAL HISTORY SOCIETY. VOL. 1, NO. 2. 
2. — Quaternary Deposits and Bedrock. 
As is well known, natural exposures of the Niagara limestone 
are very rare in the neighborhood of ^^lilwaukee. In fact I be- 
lieve there are only two to be found in the coiuity : One is in the 
Menomonee River bed. just below the W'auwatosa Sanitarium; 
the other is the little cliff which projects in the shape of a triangle 
in a northeasterly direction from one of the bluff's in the Soldiers' 
Home grounds into the flats of the Menomonee A'alley. The rock 
here forms the hcise of a rounded gravel hill which crowns it like 
a dome. This gravel hill is the outermost of a group of similar 
hillocks, which within these grounds form an area of the nature 
of kames, as far as I know the only occurrence of such a structure 
in this vicinity. 
How did this little exposure take its origin? The theory 
which suggests itself first of all is, that it is an ancient sea-cliff*. It 
stands on the edge of a circular valley, surrounded on all sides, 
except the east, where it connects with the plain of the present 
Menomonee River, by bluff's of considerable steepness. The fact 
that there is a narrow terrace on the inside of this semi-circle of 
bluffs, several feet higher than the general level of the valley, adds 
rather than detracts from the plausibility of the suggestion, for 
such terraces are a common shore form. 
But a closer inspection of the rock itself quickly refutes this 
theory. As stated above, the exposure has the shape of a A', with 
the apex towards the northeast. The easterly face might possibly 
be shaped by the action of waves, for it is almost vertical as sea 
cliff's, formed by undercutting, usually are. But the other face 
presents smooth planes, slanting back at an angle of about 45 
degrees. These planes are roughened by weathering. They could 
not possibly have been formed by wave action. AMiat. then, is their 
origin ? 
Observations on some phenomena in another place in the 
vicinity may suggest the true explanation. Less than half a mile 
to the north from this cliff* is the quarry of Story Bros. It is lo- 
cated at the base of the bluff forming the west bank of the ^lenom- 
onee A'alley. A portion of the discrete of which this bluff is com- 
posed has been removed, laying bare the surface of the bedrock. 
This surface is elevated in the neighborhood of twenty feet above 
the general level of the valley. The quarry itself constitutes a 
.deep hole, sunk far below that level. Evidently the bedrock 
formed a low hill, the eastern portion of which has been cut away 
in making the quarry. This leaves the line of contact between the 
glacial deposits and the bedrock plainly visible on the west side of 
