Jointed Earth- A uger for Explorations. — Darton. 1 1 7 
the intermediate cave period and from that to the mound period, 
and have found each age full of problems. The swamps and 
swales and low lands were frequented by Indians. The sand 
ridges, the " cypress swamps," the first, second and third ter- 
races along the river valleys were occupied by Mound Builders 
with their villages on the rich plains, their forts on the high bluffs, 
their p3 r ramids rising out of the Hood plains, but there is nothing 
to distinguish the age of any of them except the faint traces of a 
differentiation in their art and architecture. Possibly the geolo 
gist may discover in the cuts and erosions, and beneath the loam, 
in the peat beds, among the shelter caves, in the grottoes orjbe- 
neath the gravels that part of the record which has so far baffled 
us, and will help the archaeologists solve the problem of man's ex- 
istence on this continent. 
We do not claim the terraces to have been artificial, we are not 
sure that many of them have even been moulded, but the remains 
and the tokens of man are upon them and beneath them, ami both 
the geologist and the archaeologist may stud}' them. 
ON A JOINTED EARTH-AUGER FOR GEOLOGICAL 
EXPLORATIONS IN SOFT DEPOSITS * 
l!v N- H. Dartox, U. S. Geological Survey. 
In the ninth report of the director of the I". S. Geol. Survey 
for 1887-8, Mr. W. J. McGee briefly described a jointed earth- 
auger which he employed successfully in exploring the superficial 
deposits about Iowa* City. In my investigations in Atlantic 
coastal plain geology, I have used the instrument with great satis 
taction in boring to depths from five to forty feet, and I now wish 
to describe the details of its construction and use together with 
some modifications which have greatly increased its efficiency 
The improved form of instrument consists of an auger bit; a 
number of three-foot lengths of one-fourth-inch iron pipe ; a cross 
bar handle, all with threads and couplings for connection to any 
length required, a pair of pipe tongs and a receptacleof some kind. 
The bit should consist of an ordinary one-and-a-half inch car- 
penter's auger with two or three whorls of double spirals, welded 
to a one-half-inch iron bar to extend its length to three feel 
♦Read to the Geological Society of America, Doc. 30, 1890 
