Distribution of the Loess. — Wrij^Ut. 209 
Miss Owen's paper concerning the composition and stratifica- 
tion of the loess at St. Joseph, and the similar facts of massive 
stratification to which professor Winchell has called attention.* 
A typical illustration of the stratification in the loess is shown 
in ti.e accompanying photograph, taken by Dr. A. L. Child in 
a railway cut at Plattsmouth, Neb., at a depth of eighty feet 
from the surface. 
In reference to this whole question of the deposition of the 
loess it should be observed that, as professors Chamberlain 
and Salisbury have clearly demonstrated, "Typical loess is neith- 
er a sand nor a clay, but a silt of intermediate fineness. It is 
finer and more uniform than sand and less fine than clays and 
residuary earths, though the latter are generally less homo- 
geneous and their constituents have a wider range in size. The 
loess is conspicuously coarser than the residuary earths, if we 
may judge from the fact that, after the particles of the latter 
have been thoroughly separated from one another and the ul- 
timate physical elements caused to be freely suspended in water, 
a much longer time is required for the settling of the particles 
than is the case with loess when subjected to the same treat- 
ment."! 
Professor Shimek endeavors to support his aeolian hypoth- 
esis from facts which he has observed at Council Bluffs and 
some other places showing that "the loess is usually of approx- 
imately uniform thickness on tops and slopes of hills, and is 
often laminated parallel to the surface ;" and asks, "Under what 
conditions could flooded streams have produced these results?"! 
The answer will readily be found in a brief consideration of the 
conditions connected with these temporary floods which may be 
supposed. The outlying country upon either side of the Mis- 
souri valley, under the influence of long-continued subaerial 
agencies had been rendered rough and irregular in outline, so 
that, while the water outside of the channel of the river was in 
a static condition during floods, the loess would settle down 
over the surface like a blanket in uniform thickness, leaving the 
irregularities to a great extent as pronounced as before. Cer- 
*"Was Man In America In the Glacial Period,"' Bull. Oeol. Soc, vol xiv, 
p. 143, 1903. 
tPrelimlnary Paper on the Driftless Area of the Upper Mississippi Val- 
ley, by T. ('. ("HAMDERLiN and R. D. Salisbuby, U. 8. Oeol. Sur., Sij-th An. 
Rep., n. 278, 1884-85. 
t'Loess and the I.ansinp Man." Am. Gkoi.., vol. ssxii, p. 336, 1903. 
