bids fair long to remain one of the classic geological localities of the continent.

At this time and at this distance there are few of us who have any adequate appreciation of the great difficulties which the problem once presented. Still fewer of us there are who understand from direct experience what it really means actively and determinedly to contend on the battle-line of the unknowable. By one in position best to know intimately the intricacies of attempting to decipher the glacial puzzles of that day the procedure, so far as it concerns Iowa, is thus graphically stated:

in the solution of the problem it is necessary to do more than assume the existence and action of a great sheet of ice hundreds or thousands of feet in thickness and hundreds or thousands of miles in extent. In order to explain the sum of the phenomena it is necessary to picture the great ice sheet not only in its general form and extent, but in its local features, its thickness, its direction and rate of movement over each square league, the inclination of its surface both at top and bottom, and the relation of these slopes to the subjacent surface of earth and rock; and all this without a single glacial stria or an inch of ice polish, save in one small spot, in the whole tract of 16,500 square miles. It is necessary to conceive not only the mode of melting of the ice at each league of its retreat, but also every considerable brook, every river and every lake or pond formed by the melting, both at its under surface and on its upper surface; it is necessary to restore not only the margin of the mer de glace under each minute of latitude it occupied, but, as well, the canons by which it was cleft, the floe-bearing lakes and mud-charged marshes with which it was fringed, each island of ice, and each ice-bound lake formed within its limits. And it is not only necessary to reconstruct the geography of a dozen episodes, as does the anatomist the skeleton from a few bones, but to develop a geography such as civilized eye has never seen, and which could exist only under conditions such as utterly transcend the experience of civilized men. All this has been done. The trail of the ice monster has been traced, his magnitude measured, his form and even his features figured forth, and all from the slime of his body alone, where even his characteristic tracks fail.

The now famous geologic section under consideration is situated on the crest of Capitol hill, at the south end of the State Capitol grounds. As originally described in the Ameri

711th Annual Report, U. S. G. Survey, p. 200.

can Journal of Sciences the exposure of deposits presents the following relations:

5. Till, light reddish bluff clay, with pebbles...

4. Till, contorted and interstratified with loess..

3. Loess, with numerous fossils ....

2. Till, dark red clay, with abundant pebbles.. 1. Shale (Carbonic) exposed

Feet

7

5

15

6

10

The important features especially to be noted are that: (1) The lower till (No. 2) represents what is now called the Kansas drift, which was formed when the great continental glacier reaching southward to St. Louis and Kansas City, attained its greatest extent and thickness; (2) the loess members (Nos. 3 and 4), composed of fine loams, constitute the soil formations during a long interglacial epoch when the climate was not very different from what it is at the present day; and, (3) the upper till (No. 5) represents what is now known as the great Wisconsin drift-sheet.

At the time when these observations were made (1882), as already indicated, the possible complexity of the Glacial period was not yet even surmised. Possibilities of a second Glacial epoch were only vaguely being considered. The prolix and bitter controversy on the duality versus the unity of the Glacial period was just beginning. Under these circumstances it is not at all surprising that some of the facts were partially misinterpreted, and that their true significance was for a considerable time overlooked. Then, too, the prevailing theory of the origin of the loess tended to obscure the proper understanding of the accurately recorded data.

Notwithstanding the fact that McGee was inclined at the time to attach rather slight importance to his observations, and to regard the phenomena as indicating mere local advance of the ice-sheet, it soon became manifest that the two till-sheets separated by a thick loess formation was unimpeachable testimony in support of two distinct and great ice movements within what was previously regarded as a single one. So far as is known this appears to be the first and most im

$American Journal of Science, v. 24, pp. 202-23.

portant recorded evidence showing conclusively the complex character of the Ice age.

Of similar import was the somewhat later description of a great drift section several miles farther south on the Des Moines river. In a paper read before the Iowa Academy of Science in 1890, it was shown that there was still another thick member to be reckoned with below the loess. In later years the officers of the State Geological Survey have been inclined to regard it as representing the pre-Kansan Aftonian beds.

The Capitol Hill section is now one of the notable drift localities in America. During the past quarter of a century the place and vicinity have been visited by many of the most eminent scientists of the world.-C. K.

LETTERS CONCERNING GEN. J. G. LAUMAN. The collections of the Historical Department of Iowa of war mementoes, writings and books, promise richest returns to descendants of the soldiers and to the students of their times. Much of the meaning of one life is gleaned from materials contemporary with that life, recently received from different sources.

Elsewhere is presented a list of the materials illustrative of the life and services as a soldier, of Brevet Major General Jacob G. Lauman. Almost simultaneously there arrived from Mrs. Ann Gowey, Pleasant Plain, Iowa, a fine collection of family letters, very rich in genealogical and Civil war materials. One of these, in cramped hand and heavy pencilled lines reads:

Dear Brother:

Benton Barax, Jan. the 2.

I sit down to write to you to let you know how we are getting along. Colonel Lauman returned the other day. You better believe the boys gave three rousing cheers, after which the Colonel stepped forward and told them that they behaved themselves nobly at the battle of Belmont and he expected before long that they would have a chance to see what the balance of the regiment was made of. You see that he thinks a good deal of his men. He is lame and has to have help to get around.

THOMAS B. ATWOOD.

Admiration for the Civil war service of any man, implies an interest in the earlier and later phases of his life. Four years brilliantly spent implies other years of fruitfulness. It is interesting, then, to have received from a source remote from the repositories of information concerning General Lauman's military merit, a simple commercial statement as follows:

NOTES.

The Historical Department of Iowa has received from the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa, through the generosity of an alumnus of that institution, Mr. C. W. Dietz, a very fine photograph of the campus and buildings, appropriately framed. From this can be obtained an accurate idea of the effective landscaping of the grounds and placement of the beautiful buildings. Iowa State College holds place among the leaders of the present day in landscape improvement.

Mrs. George Harpel of Des Moines has presented to the Historical Department a collection of over forty Lincoln pictures. This collection was made during a period of years and covers every phase of Lincoln's life. Some of them are copies of original paintings and others copies of drawings, one of which is a characteristic sketch by Thomas Nast.

Mr. Thompson Van Hyning, formerly the museum director of the Historical Department of Iowa, has recently been appointed librarian of the Experiment Station, and director of the museum of the Florida State University. His address is Florida State University, Gainesville, Florida.

The growing interest of the day along historical lines was manifested by the Pageant of Des Moines History, 1673-1914, which was presented by the senior class assisted by the student body of the East High School at Grand View Park, Des Moines, May 15, 1914. This pageant was prepared and directed by Miss Esse V. Hathaway, assisted by the members of the East High faculty. The beautiful natural amphitheater embracing the necessary features of wood, water, hillside, road and plain, furnished an appropriate setting. The history of the city was portrayed in the following six episodes:

1. Symbolic nature-setting of Des Moines, interpreted by the spirit of the hills, spirit of the fields, march of the monks and dance of the river spirits.