IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
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The loess deposit of the county occupies the divides, and 
extends over the hillsides into the river valleys. It is quite 
thin over the entire county, excepting east of Barney, where 
large hills of loess are banked against the adjacent Missourian 
limestone. The loess here is stratified, seeming to be made up 
of wash from the unstratified loess. In the east central and 
northeastern parts of the county the loess is more sandy than 
as usually found. The loess consists of two parts, an upper 
and a lower; the lower is more clayey than the upper, but no 
soil line has been observed between the two parts within the 
bounds of the county. The line between the two may have 
some relation to the soil line first observed at Churchville, War- 
ren county, by Bain, and to the line of separation between the 
upper and lower loess at Indianola described in the report on 
the “Geology of Warren county.”* 
The Kansan drift is very heavy in the northeastern, south- 
eastern and southwestern parts of the county. It consists of 
the usual reddish-brown gravel containing subangular water- 
worn pebbles of various light colored granite and quartz, 
together with greenstone and reddish quartzite pebbles and 
boulders. Below this gravel is a clay with numerous pebbles 
scattered through it, that, under the action of running water, 
form numerous little pot-holes in the beds of ravines that cut 
into this clay in the southeastern part of the county. There 
are no characteristics at present known whereby the relation of 
this lower part of this Kansan drift to the sub-Aftonian, or 
Albertan, drift may be determined. 
There is no Wisconsin drift within the limits of the county, 
but the loess on the hills in the northeastern part of the county 
is quite sandy. Near the boundary between Lee and Jefferson 
townships, the northeastern townships, various outcrops of 
Des Moines strata protrude from the hillsides, while in the 
western part of Jefferson township they are concealed by the 
drift. 
The loess lies unconformably on the Kansan drift, and the 
drift unconformably on the Carboniferous strata. 
The relation of the drift to the underlying strata reveals the 
general plan of the preglacial drainage as contrasted with the 
present drainage. 
* “Geology of Warren County,” in Iowa Geological Survey, vol. V, p. 318. 
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