402 The American Geoloaist. Dccombor, i?<97 
"We have already in the preceding pages fully set forth the factof the 
absence of boulders or transported materials over almost the entire area 
of the lead region. A single exceptional case has, however, been notic- 
ed, which is of great interest, and in regard to which it is difficult to of- 
fer a satisfactory explanation. The locality to which we here refer is 
one near Mineral Point, a little to the southwest of the Dreaduaught 
diggings. Here, between two small affluents of the Legate branch, on 
a ridge of Galena limestone, and at an elevation of about 125 feet above 
the sandstone, which is exposed at the base of the bluff or ridge some- 
thing over a quarter of a mile distant to the west, is a group of loose 
blocks of sandstone, - - There can be no doubt that these masses of 
sandstone have been raised either artificially or by natural means above 
.their original place of deposit; a circumstance which would be of easy 
explanation, if the drift had ever swept over this region." (P. 239). 
The boulders are further described as angular, and as bas- 
ed several feet belovi' the surface. 
How much evidence of glaciation in the "drif tless area" may 
be found by closer study, is not safely predicted. N. H. Win- 
chell in his description of Houston county, Minnesota, which 
is in the western part of the "driftless area," says : 
"There is to be seen occasionally a local drift, or debris derived from 
the rock of the country round about, and this .sometimes has a deceit- 
ful resemblance to true northern drift, yet it can always be distinguish- 
ed from it on examination."* 
There may be beneath the mantle of loess-loam very "wide- 
spread evidence of glaciation. Of course no gigantic mo- 
raines like those of the enormous northern drift need be ex- 
pected and I think no great planing of the surface of the sub- 
jacent rocks should be a necessary result. "The diiferences 
between adjoining glaciated and non-glaciated topographies 
are apparently due less to glacial filing down of prominences 
than to grading up of depressions." j- 
I formerly had the good fortune of often accompanying Prof. 
G. Steinmann of Freiburg, Baden, in his field work on the loess 
and glacial deposits, and beheld, almost in amazement, the 
great skill with which decisive evidence of glaciation was 
often elaborated. I have not been able in my observation of 
Pleistocene deposits to use nearly so great skill, nor have there 
been time and facilities at my disposal for a satisfactory in- 
vestigation of the "driftless area." A few things are however 
*Final Rep. Geol. Nat. Hist. Sur. Minn., vol. i, p. 227, 1884. 
tChamberlin and Salisbury, op. cit. p. 207. 
