276 The American Geologist. December, 1899 
The normal loess-Kansan surface, as seen between Peosta 
and Epworth, is modified by a number of pahoid ridges 1)e- 
tween Epworth and Farley; but west of the station at Farley, 
the railway enters immediately upon a new type of topography, 
upon a plain of lowan drift. The lowan is much younger than 
theKansan. Its surface is nearly level; it is absolutely uneroded: 
it is not covered with loess; and large granite bowlders, pro- 
jecting conspicuously above the surface, catch the attention 
and awaken the interest of even the unscientific traveler. It is 
a narrow lobe of lowan drift which is traversed by the railway 
between Farley and Dyersville. The lobe occupies a low plain 
as if the lowan ice had flowed out in a long tongue between 
ridges of eroded Kansan. These rain-sculptured ridges, now 
covered with loess, are recognizable on either hand from the 
platform of the coach. The level, uneroded lowan surface af- 
forded the engineer in charge of the location of the railway line 
an opportunity of which he was quick to take advautage. This 
narrow lowan lobe between Farley and Dyersville, is as typi- 
cally lowan as any area in the state; but west of Dyersville. if 
the observer wishes to pursue the subject further he may enter 
upon the great low^an plain; and all the way across the coun- 
ties of Delaware, Buchanan, Black Hawk, and westward to 
the Wisconsin moraine in Hardin, he will find his whole hori- 
zon occupied by a surface showing only the gentle undulations 
left by the melting lowan ice. Erosion has played no part in 
producing the land forms which characterize ninety-nine per 
cent of the lowan area. Except in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of the streams the topography is constructional. 
Twice in the short journey from Dubuque to Dyersville, 
the land forms change with almost surprising suddenness; 
three distinct topographic areas are included between the east- 
ern and western borders of a single county. 
