TJie Loess at St. Joseph. — Ozven. 225 
gated spiral form is in much greater numbers than the flat cir- 
cular species. At the top of this exposure there are about 
twelve inches of a mixed deposit of undoubted aeolian and 
vegeta])le origin which is without shells. 
A similar exposure left by leveling for th,e ^electric light 
tower on the bluff north of Pacific street also shows high level 
strata rich in shells with the elongated spiral forms predom- 
inating. Portions of the laminae exposed here are slightly 
stained with iron, as are those at the base of the blufT shown 
in the cut at I4tlx and Hickory streets where the level is only 
88. But the most striking of all is a deep new cut at a distance 
of three o'r four blocks to the southeast and at a much higher 
level. The cut reveals a ledge of decomposing shale and its 
accompanying bed of clay, capped and bordered by a thick mass 
of loess the main part of which is broadly banded with iron 
stain almost up to the short grass roots. The line of contact 
between the loess and underlying shale and clay is sharply dis- 
tinct as in the tunnel at Lansing where the skeleton was found ; 
but here the unbroken horizontal bands of iron stain prove that 
the underlying loess on the slope occupies its original position 
against the sloping clay and, therefore, is not the result of wash 
or slip nor a recent contribution transported by the wind. 
In many places on the Asylum road, especially at points 
about two miles east from the river, the iron-stained lamina- 
tions in the loess are exceptionally brilliant in hue. It is also 
noted that they undulate in regular and parallel ripples. Here 
and beyond there is a thinning out of the loess and in places the 
glacial till is exposed at the surface. . Two large quartzyte boul- 
ders are prominently planted on a hill that slopes toward the 
road. 
In late summer when the volume and current of the Mis- 
souri river are much reduced, the process of spreading a yellow 
stratum on an almost forsaken bar may often be observed ; but 
there appears no satisfactory evidence or hypothesis by which 
the origin of horizontal iron-stained bands may be fixed by a 
high, dry wind. Assuming, however, that all known facts were 
in favor of aeolian origin of the loess, where could there have 
been river bars of sufficient extent to yield the supply for the 
deep mantle covering the region about St. Joseph? It is also 
safe to remember that during the long cold season, when floods 
