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CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Loess and its distribution. Permit mc to add a few words 
concerning the loess distribution, and theories as to its mode of deposi- 
tion, to the paper by Shimek which appeared in your December number. 
While it is true that there are deposits of loess of limited extent and 
slight depth on parts of the Wisconsin drift, and also under the Illinoian 
drift, the only widespread deposit in the Mississippi valley region is one 
whose stratigraphic position is between the Illinoian and Wisconsin drift 
sheets, or the position occupied by the lowan drift sheet. Like the low- 
an drift it was not deposited upon the fresh surface of the Illinoian 
drift, but rests upon a soil, known as the Sangamon soil that had been 
formed on that sheet of drift. This is true not only in eastern Iowa 
and western Illinois, where the loess connects with the margin of the 
lowan drift, but as well over the entire surface of the Illinoian drift 
wherever exposed outside the limits of the lowan and Wisconsin drift 
sheets in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. The part in eastern 
Iowa has been clearly shown by Calvin and his associates on the Iowa 
Survey to be a correlative of the lowan drift, for it connects definitely 
with the border of that drift sheet. It is, therefore, known as the 
lowan loess. Inasmuch as it occupies the same stratigraphic position 
from Iowa to Kentucky and Ohio, the writer and others familiar with 
the stratigraphic relation have felt no hesitancy in calling it the lowan 
loess in this wide field. This, however, does not necessitate its being 
entirely a dependency of the lowan drift sheet, as some have inferred. 
It simply means that the loess deposition, and the deposition of the 
lowan drift sheet were essentially contemporaneous. 
The mode or modes of deposition of the loess are still a problem, but 
one which may, ere long, be satisfactorily worked out. The careful 
study of fossils, which Shimek has been carrying on for several years 
