406 
CERAMICS OF GUMBO SOILS 
Pearce, in following too closely McGee’s footsteps, besides being 
unfamiliar with the gumbos over wide fields, also overlooked the 
silt structure of the material. Had the Calvin notes on his dis¬ 
cussion of the nature of the blue silt, or gumbo, not been so long 
suppressed or had their true import been realized the supposed 
pressing need of proposing the new and barbaric generic name of 
gumbotil would never have been felt. The evidences set forth in 
support of the weathering hypothesis of gumbo therefore appears 
wholly inadequate and unconvincing, and better support quite dif¬ 
ferent explanations; while the term itself is a marriage of bastards, 
the first in the history of geological science, and should not find 
place in polite society. 
In referring to the gumbo of certain counties of southern Iowa 
Bain ^ is not wholly wrong in terming it modified loess. What he 
saw most clearly in his localities was the gumbo surmounting the 
loess. Whether or not he examined closely gumbo reclining on till 
is not a matter of record. Although perhaps not in the same sense 
Bain’s idea that the gumbo which he saw is modified loess is strictly 
correct, since gumbo may be modified from almost any clay and 
from any locality on the face of the earth. The Kay and Pearce 
criticisms of the Bain opinions apply with equal force to their own 
till notions, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, and 
word by word. But they are entirely without warrant and only 
tend to confuse the discussion, without adding anything substantial. 
Concerning the origin of the gumbo Kay and Pearce recapitulate 
the various opinions of other workers in this field, with the evident 
purpose in mind of strengthening their own position by discrediting 
the efforts of their predecessors. Despite this barrage the recorded 
observations of Calvin, Leverett, Bain, Tilton, Udden, Arey and 
Shimek, appear to be singularly correct, at least so far as they go. 
With all of these writers the genesis of the gumbo is only an inci¬ 
dental, accidental or secondary consideration. As already noted 
Bain’s connection of the gumbo with the loess is not inherently 
erroneous, because gumbo is indeed associated as often with loess 
as it is with till. The water-laid aspects of the gumbo appealed 
most strongly to Calvin, Leverett, Arey and Shimek, the last men¬ 
tioned author even finding gumbo actually resting on gravel. That 
3 Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. VIII, p. 292, 1897. 
