Distribution of flic Loess. — ll'rii^ht. 21 1 
explanation of the deposition of these boulders brings into 
positive view movements af water in the Missouri valley just 
such as are needed to account for the main deposition of the 
loess. 
Tuscumbia is situated in the trough of the Osage river sixty 
miles above its mouth, and fully forty miles south of the limit 
reached by the ice of the Glacial epoch. The Osage river oc- 
cupies a- very old line of drainage with a diversified history. It 
runs across the lower flanks of the Ozarkian uplift, in a line 
nearly parallel with the Missouri and Kansas rivers, having 
lowered its channel nearly as fast as the Ozarkian elevation 
proceeded ; so that now it is about 300 feet below the general 
level on either side. The edges of the upper part of the valley 
are several miles apart, while the immediate trough is about 
one-half mile wide, with perpendicular bluflfs of magnesian 
limestone rising from 50 to 100 feet above it. 
Cross section of the Osage trough at Tu«cumbia showing the position 
of a boulder on the Sedimentary Terrace. 
The space between the rocky bluffs is occupied by the river 
with its flood-plain and a bordering terrace from, fifteen to 
twenty feet above high-water mark, which furnishes an excel- 
lent strip of arable soil. At eight localities along this inner 
gorge extending from four miles above Tuscumbia to several 
miles below, professor Buckley announced that Dr. Ball, in the 
survey of Miller county, had found granite boulders. The up- 
per two of these I have visited. The first of them, on Mr. Wil- 
liam A. Barron's farm, four miles up the river from Tuscumbia, 
lies buried in the bordering sedimentary terrace, so that just 
the top of it is visible. It is about 100 yards back from the 
river, and about 300 yards from the rocky blulT upon the west 
side. The boulder measures 4X3 feet upon the surface, and is 
buried as much as two feet under ground. How much more 
could not be ascertained with the means at my disposal. It is 
