Cote Sans Dessein and Grand Tozvcr — Marbut. 87 
of Cote Sans Dessein to the Missouri river flood-plain. It is 
situated in Jackson count}^ Illinois, about 30 miles below 
Chester and about the same distance above Cape Girardeau. 
Like Cote Sans Dessein it is an isolated hill made up of beds 
of paleozoic rocks identical in age, structure and character 
with those exposed in the bluffs on both sides of the flood- 
plain. It rises abruptly above the flood-plain to a hight of 
fully 100 feet. It is accompanied by an unnamed companion, 
of about equal size and identical relations to surroundings, 
which lies about a mile to the north. Grand Tower differs 
from Cote Sans Dessein, however, in its position within the 
flood-plain. That part of the plain lying between Grand 
Tower and its eastern bluff is nearly five miles wide, while 
that part lying west of Grand Tower is less than two miles in 
width. The river at the present time occupies the belt be- 
tween Grand Tower and the western bluff. 
These features are members of a rather large group of 
hills, occurring in many parts of the world, which are more 
or less closely related to each other in origin. The greater 
number of them, however, are surrounded by narrow winding 
belts of lowland, while the two under consideration rise from 
the midst of wide lowlands. The origin of the former is now 
well understood and they have been described from many 
parts of the world.* They are known to be the result of the 
formation of cutoffs in upland meandering streams and are 
the homologues of the lands surrounded by crescentic lakes 
so common in the flood-plains of many large rivers. Hills of 
this kind occur in Missouri, but so far as now known they 
are confined to the streams of the Ozark region. They are 
known to occur on the Meramec, Bourbeuse, Grand and Gas- 
conade rivers and on many small creeks. They do not occur 
on either the Missouri, Mississippi or the Osage. In Europe 
they are of frequent occurrence, especially in the Ardennes 
region of Belgium, the lower Seine region in France and in 
central Russia. 
Cote Sans Dessein and Grand Tower show no evidence of 
such an origin. In fact, in the case of the former, the evidence 
of origin by different, though related process is clear. Its re- 
*Natl. Geographic Magazine, June and July, 1896. 
