7 1 
1877*] The Loess of the Rhine and the Danube. 
floods that appear to have swept down the valley, in bays 
and recesses, and at these points bones of the mammoth 
and its associates have been found. I took the following 
section (Fig. 2) at Blosenberg, near Heidingsfeld, where the 
loess is extensively dug for brick-making. At the clay-pit 
the lowest bed seen is one of subangular quartzose gravel, 
with pebbles of crystalline rocks from the mountains at the 
sources of the Main. This is covered with clean false-bedded 
sands, containing lines of small angular and subangular 
pebbles, mostly of quartz. The sands are covered by loess, 
which at the base is sandy and a little stratified, but soon 
graduates upwards into unstratified calcareous loess with* 
vertical joints. It is divided into two beds by a clear line 
of division, the upper one of which is of a lighter colour 
than the lower. In another section, in a small valley to the 
1. Alluvial plain. 2. Loess, with rubble and reconstru&ed loess on top. 
3. Gravels and false-bedded sands underlying loess. 
south of Marianberg, the division line is irregular, and is 
strongly marked by the occurrence along it of angular frag- 
ments of limestone. 
At Blosenberg the loess conforms to the configuration of 
the ground, and in all the sections I saw, the different divi- 
sions were inclined with the slope of the hill, and had not 
been deposited in horizontal strata that had been afterwards 
denuded, but rather as a mantle on the slopes of a pre- 
existing valley. Shells of land mollusks are very abundant 
at Blosenberg, particularly on the slopes of the hill, where 
there are continuous sections by the sides of the deeply-cut 
paths that lead up through the vineyards. They occur here 
mostly in lines that give a sort of stratification to the loess. 
These lines of shells rise with the slope of the hill. I traced 
them up to a height of about 670 feet above the sea, 
and the loess up to 714 feet. From thence upwards 
the steep slope is mostly covered with limestone debris 
until we get to the summit, which is again covered with 
