A BURIED PEAT BED IN DODGE TOWNSHIP, UNION 
COUNTY, IOWA. 
BY T. E. SAVAGE. 
Union county already occupies a notable place in the 
annals of the Pleistocene geology of our State. Near the 
towns of Thayer and Afton Junction are exposed the 
gravel beds which first furnished the basis for the separ- 
ation of the drift of the pre-Kansan age from that of the 
Kansan, and for the establishment of the Aftonian inter- 
glacial interval. The name of this latter age of American 
geology was taken from the town of Afton which is located 
not far from the above mentioned gravel exposures, in 
Union county. 
Near the southeast corner of Dodge township^a small Wt 
drift bordered stream crosses sections 85 and 36, and y 3 yi0 
renders tribute to the Grand river a short distance east of 
the border of the township. About the middle of section 
36 the waters of this stream have cut into the bank which 
borders it on the south and exposed the following succes- 
sion of beds: 
FEET 
4. Fine-grained, pebbleless soil, dark gray in 
color at the surface, changing to yellow in 
the deeper portions 2 
3. Yellow colored drift bearing numerous pebbles 
and small bowlders, maximum thickness. 21 
2. Bed made up of alternating layers of brown 
colored vegetable matter and fine-grained, 
light gray sand. Greatest exposed thick- 
ness 
1. Blue colored bowlder clay containing nu- 
merous pebbles and small bowlders of 
granite, greenstones, quartz and quartzite 10 
(103) 
