292 American Geologist. ^^^y- ^^^^ 
snails in the uplands are proof of aeolian origin, the other re- 
gards them merely as evidence that during the lowan stage of 
the Glacial period the spring floods passed sufficiently early 
for the high lands left exposed to be clothed in vegetation for 
the maintenance of animal life. Whether the snails whose 
shells remain were of land or water species is a matter of no 
important significance, since there is no claim that they have 
been transported, and the conditions assumed by the aqueous 
theory are fully as favorable to land forms as to those of flu- 
viatile requirements. 
The unearthing of witnesses incapable of opposing inter- 
pretations might, accordingly, promote harmony. Several 
such witnesses together with a few local facts and conditions 
may therefore be of sufficient interest to merit attention in con- 
nection with the "Loess Papers," by professor B. Shimek, re- 
cently published as an "Extract from the Bulletin of the Lab- 
oratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa, 
vol. v." 
In discussing the time element, on page 320, professor Shi- 
mek says: 
"It might seem that, if loess was deposited most abundantly where 
vegetation was comparatively vigorous, there ought to be an abundance 
of plant remains in the deposit. The rate of deposition, however, must 
have been so slow that all organic matter would have disintegrated 
long before it could have been covered and sealed in the deposit. Or- 
ganic remains can thus be preserved only when overwhelmed, especially 
in wet places, and their absence would rather militate against the 
aqueous theory." 
We may, therefore, feel confident that he would accept any 
fossilized organic matter as satisfactory evidence that it had 
been overwhelmed and, consequently, would militate in favor 
of the aqueous theory. 
The loess at St. Joseph has at last yielded this form of 
testimony. It is the fossil casts of snails in their shells or 
partly surrounded by the crushed fragments which show to 
what species they belong. The first discovered is a small 
group of Helicina occulta, both fully mature and half-grown, 
that was spread along a horizontal stratification line in original, 
undisturbed, upland loess at Sycamore, between Fifteenth and 
Sixteenth streets, in the southeastern part of town. The ex- 
posure was made in a street cut and the fossils found at a depth 
