Cote Sans Dcsscin and Grand Tinvcr. — Marbnt. 8q 
the southward sapping of the Missouri, finally cut through 
the upland between the two streams, at a point about two 
miles above its old mouth. It then flowed into the Missouri 
and abandoned the lower part of its old valley. The Missouri 
river has never occupied this old valley as it has the old Osage 
valley south of Cote Sans Dessein. At a later period the 
Moreau again cut through the intervening highland between 
its valley and that of the Missouri and now enters that stream 
a little more than a mile above the first cut. At this point, how- 
ever, the Moreau did not cut directly through the upland and 
into the Missouri flood-plain, but cut into and occupied the 
lower part of the valley of a small tributary of the Missouri. 
The tributary did not flow at right angles to the course of 
either the Missouri or the Moreau, but at a rather low angle 
with the latter for several hundred feet on each side of the 
point of capture. The Moreau began by capturing the head- 
waters of the small stream. It continued to invade more and 
more of the valley of the small stream until it had reached a 
point where the level of the latter was the same as that of the 
Moreau. The valley of the small stream was occupied and 
the Moreau abandoned another section of its former valley. 
There can be no doubt that the abandoned valley is that of 
the Moreau. It is continuous with the present valley and of 
about the same width. The meanders of the old valley fit onto 
those of the Moreau, and the character of the meanders is the 
same in both cases. The Moreau is characterized by long- 
swinging meanders with narrow belts of upland between, and 
a meander belt more than a mile in width. 
Another repetition of the same features occurs in Benton 
county. Grand river, which flows into the Osage about three 
miles above Warsaw is a stream whose lower course, that 
through the lower Carboniferous and Silurian limestones, is 
very much like that of the Moreau. The present mouth of 
Grand river is the homologue of that of the Moreau after the 
first and before the second capture. In this case, however, 
the Osage river, the larger stream, did a relatively larger part 
of the work than did the Missouri in the other. Before this 
capture Grand river flowed into the Osage about three miles 
below the present site cjf Warsaw. As in the case of tht' 
Moreau, the character of the abandoned part of Grand river 
valley leaves no doubt of its on'i^in and for the samereasons. 
