Evidence on the Deposition of Loess. — Owen. 295 
the shell into which it had withdrawn and which still retains 
distinct splashes of color. This cut is 270 feet above the flood- 
plain and is shown in plate x. in The American Geologist, 
vol. xxxiii. 
' In one of professor Shimek's "Loess Papers," page 334, he 
says : 
"The advocates of the aqueous theory can find little solace in the 
fossils of the loess, and without them their case has but little tangible 
support." 
This may be true, yet it seems not impossible that both the 
solace and the tangible support can be found among the fossils 
of exclusively terrestrial forms, not even those objected to as 
types common to pools and ponds being admitted to considera- 
tion, if the casts already described are to be accepted on the re- 
cognized value of such evidence. 
The shells collected by professor G. F. Wright from the 
upland loess at St. Joseph were submitted for identification to 
professor L. P. Gratacap of the Museum of Natural History, 
New York. They were taken from the loess about one hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the river, and from twenty to fifty feet 
below the top of the bluiT. His report is : 
"Group A came from the southeast part of the city, and group B 
from the north end, and both were embedded in an identical argilla- 
ceous dust in which almost no silica and only a slight admixture of 
lime could be detercted." 
"The shells are typical terrestrial species but are not in quite the 
same stage of fossilization, those from the north end of the city having 
lost the nacre along the columellar surface of the Succinea obliqua, 
which in the same species is partially retained in the specimens from the 
southeast part of the city. The former specimens were also more frail 
and tenuous. This difference is unimportant, as local percolation of 
the surface waters might greatly vary, and produce in shells subjected 
to, or protected against it. very differing states of preservation." 
"Group A consisted of Succinea obliqua, Patula alternata, Mesodon 
albolabris. Group B contained Succinea obliqua, and a crushed Pa- 
tula striatella." 
"It would certainly be difficult to draw any conclusive inferences 
from this meagre display of species. Their general condition of pre- 
servation permits a guarded inference that they have not been exposed 
to rude or distant transportation ; they belong where they were found ; 
they are, so to speak, in siiii. The presence of color flames on the Pa- 
tula alternata argues for its rather rapid sepulture, as the bleaching ac- 
tion of the weather and sunlight would have soon removed these color- 
ations after the death of the animal. On the other hand its own habits 
of hibernation may have removed it from surface exposures." 
