262 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
Recent flood, and fills. The delta or alluvial fan of the creek 
is, however, so built up that in case of unusual floods the tendency 
is strong for the creek to break over its banks as it bursts from 
the hills and for the last few years rapid deposition of sediment has 
taken place along the foot of the bluffs toward the south. 
A series of floods occurred in ’02 and ’03 and less so in ’04, of 
which the writer has gleaned the following notes which have been 
incorporated with the map. These floods have not risen quite 20 
feet above the ordinary level of the creek at the bridge near the 
exit from the hills. The creek at that point is about 18 feet above 
the Missouri at low water, 3 miles west. That is, the water has 
been about 35 or 6 feet above the Missouri at that point. It is 
charged with abundant sediment, which is rapidly dropped as the 
velocity of the water is quickly checked after escaping from its 
narrow channel in the hills. 
(At C) A few rods south of the bridge a young farmer showed 
the writer where he dug out his plow or cultivator after one flood 
and had it buried again, so that he claimed that sediment, at least 
4 feet deep, had been laid down over several square rods in three 
days. He stated also that in one place he dug down 5 feet before 
he struck the roots of plants which grew on the old surface the 
season before. 
(At D) In the southwest corner of the same section, a fill 
of 4 or 5 feet had taken place in the last 7 years according to the 
testimony of another, and the flood of 1904 washed the mud into the 
road just south so that it lay like snowdrifts in position and size in 
the lee of the fence posts and weeds, in places a foot deep. 
(At E) A few rods farther south a stalk-rake having teeth 
4 feet long was completely buried and the owner dug one foot to 
find it, showing according to his estimate a fill of about 4 feet. 
He said that he had 15 cords of piled cordwood also buried, but 
probably considerable of the top was washed away. 
On the same quarter the house set up on blocks 2 feet high had 
its yard filled up nicely to the level of the sills. A similar service 
around the barn was less advantageous. The drawing, after a 
photograph, is a faithful presentation of it. (Fig. 3.) Being 
on lower ground, it was filled and the yard around it 3 or 4 feet, 
so that the door was too low for animals to enter and the joists 
of the hay loft too near the new ground for them to stand up 
easily. Since the sides of the barn were made of boards set ver- 
tically, the remedy was found by raising the floor of the loft 4 feet 
and also the top of the door, and by splicing the sides with short 
