J58 The American Geologist. April, i898 
a certain time interval between the gravel and the overlying drift. Re- 
cent studies fail to sustain this view. The Great Western railway com- 
pany undertook to open up the gravels at the point near the station 
where they showed above the track. As the steam shovel travelled to 
the north it was found that the gravel contained more and more clay 
until ordinary bowlder clay was being handled and the work was 
stopped. An examination of the east lobe of the old pit shows that 
the same transition may be traced. In this drift faint lines of stratifica- 
tion may be noticed running through the bowlder clay. So faint are 
these in the portion some distance from the gravels that they were at 
first entirely overlooked. Reexamination showed, however, that the 
bowlder clay passes into the gravel and vice versa. This relationship 
has been somewhat obscured by the circumstances of the stream pouring 
down at the contact; but, when a careful examination is made, the facts 
are seen to be unmistakable. There is no evidence of erosion, nor are 
there dynamic phenomena at the contact, such as might have been ex- 
pected had the gravels been present and a later drift sheet pushed against 
them. Indeed there is no contact, but rather a transition; that is, the 
gravels are contemporaneous with the drift and of Kansan age. As 
this is a point of some moment it may be mentioned that the Reynolds 
ford gravels in Decatur county, doubtless the extension of those near 
Afton Junction, show the same lateral transition into drift of presuma- 
ble Kansan age. 
At the extreme east end of the east lobe there is an exposure show- 
ing the beds below the drift. This exposure is in a borrow pit made 
in getting material for the railway fill. The overlying bed here is the 
yellow clay of the Kansan. It is here so far from the gravels that it 
shows no signs of stratification nor indeed anything to indicate that it 
is anything more than the ordinary yellow clay of the Kansan. It can, 
hovvever, be traced step by step through the slightly stratified drift and 
from that through the more distinctly stratified beds and so into the 
gravel. Beneath the yellow bowlder clay there occurs a pebbleless clay 
resembling the loess. Indeed one might imagine it to be the ordinary 
drift-loess section of the region reversed and minus the ferretto zone. 
In fact that is exactly what it is; a loess buried beneath yellow bowlder 
clay. In all important respects it so closely resembles the ordinary 
upland loess that the two could probably be discriminated only with 
difficulty. As the loess shows under the stratified beds at one point in 
the pit several hundred feet from this exposure, it is clearly not to be 
explained as a hillside creep. Indeed it is probable that the "quick 
sand" found beneath the gravel is this loess. 
Gra7id River Section. The exposure on the river proper is about 
one mile away and one exposure is in view from the other. Between or- 
dinary erosion has cut away the connecting beds; but looking across the 
amphitheatre the connection is obvious. This section is the only one in 
the region showing the lower till and is accordingly of exceptional in- 
terest. The full exposure shows the loess Kansan drift, and gravels 
as seen elsewhere. Beneath them are the following beds: 
