SOME GEOLOGIC ASPECTS OF CONSERVATION. 
JAMBS H. LEES. 
Iowa is usually considered as primarily a prairie state, one 
whose chief aesthetic attraction lies in the satisfaction that ac- 
companies the outlook over wide spreading grain field or level 
plain stretching away beyond the farthest ken. In a general 
way this is true and it is the fundamental factor in Iowa’s agri- 
cultural supremacy. But it is equally true that within the limits 
of the state there are many spots and localities which for unique 
interest or quiet beauty or stately grandeur can scarcely be ex- 
celled within the Mississippi Valley. Since these are essentially 
geologic phenomena it is my purpose to discuss a few of them 
from the standpoint of the geologist. 
Unquestionably the most attractive region in this state is 1 ‘ The 
Switzerland of Iowa,” so named by the late Professor Calvin, 
formerly State Geologist of Iowa, because its picturesque hills 
and deep cut valleys with their winding streams make of it a land 
comparable with the “Playground of Europe.” No one can 
traverse this region or view its bold front from the surface of the 
great river which flows along its eastern margin without being im- 
pressed first of all with its ever varying charm and then — if he 
will but pause and consider— with the marvelous history which 
has made possible such a beauty-spot in the midst of the bound- 
less plains of the Mississippi Valley. 
The Switzerland of Iowa includes Allamakee county and por- 
tions of Winneshiek, Clayton, Fayette, Dubuque and Delaware 
counties, while similar phenomena, though on a diminishing scale, 
may be found to the south along the Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries. Geologically it is the oldest part of Iowa, if we make 
exception of a very small area in the northwestern corner of the 
state, where the rock is older, though the final emergence from 
the sea may have been much more recent. Therefore the series 
of events which is recorded in the rocks exposed in this region 
is longer and more varied than that comprised in any other 
area of similar size in the state. It extends from the deposition 
of the later Cambrian sandstones through the varying condi- 
