IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
217 
of sand six feet thick, fine, irregularly bedded, and iron stained, be- 
neath which lies fifteen feet of dense clay, brown above, blue below, 
with numerous small pebbles of chert, and quartz, exposed down to low 
water in the river and 1 apparently extending below the bed of the 
stream. Professor Kay finds the Kansan drift here continuous in one 
place from the top of the hill to the bottom of the trench. 
Half a mile distant on the south side of the river sand that is appar- 
ently post-Kansan rises above the level of the track. Here the section 
is as follows: 
Feet. 
4. Soil, and brownish yellow subsoil 3 
3. Sand, fine, gray 7 
2. Sand, yellow and white, stratified, iy 2 ft.; sand, very fine and 
white, 2 ft.; sand deeply oxidized, stratified 10 
(Bottom of trench west side of track.) 
1. Sand in hole dug beneath bottom of trench 3 
A somewhat peculiar enclosure of sand in Kansan drift is found in 
Benton township (T. 71 N., R. XXI W., Sw. % of the Ne. % of sec- 
tion 32). Here, beneath five feet of the weathered phase of the Kansan 
with numerous bowlders, cobbles and pebbles of greenstone, granite and 
red quartzite, is a thin sandy and brownish plane that appears to mark 
a plane of weathering. Beneath this plane there is exposed five feet 
of dense brownish clay free from grit, without red quartzite and with- 
out greenstone, but with numerous cracks filled with lime. 
Further south there is but one cut that extends much into the Kansan 
drift. That is in section 31 of Union township, Wayne county (Tp. 
70 N., R. XXI W., Ne. % of the Sw. % of section 31). Here, beneath 
the yellowish, oxidized phase of the Kansan is the bluish phase of the 
same clay with its grit and pebbles. Beneath this there is' a layer of 
oxidized material found in the south third of the cut; elsewhere, an 
irregular undulating top of a dense brownish clay free from red 
quartzite. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND RELATIONS. 
The Des Moines shales are frequently found above the level of the 
track from the outcrop near Coon Valley to the northern boundary of 
Lucas county (section 2 of English township). Close to Whitebreast 
creek in Marion county (section 26, Franklin township) the railroad 
cut reveals a high hill of Des Moines shales with but a thin soil at the 
top. South of the northern part of Lucas county the shale appears but 
once (in section 10 of Lincoln township). Work in northern Lucas 
county, where grading is not yet completed, may possibly bring to 
light a few other exposures later. 
