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Updated: June 17, 2025
A similar succession of events has, in all likelihood, occurred in Europe during the deposition and denudation of the loess of the Pleistocene period, which, as we have seen in a former chapter, was long enough to allow of the gradual development of almost any amount of such physical changes.
Strictly speaking it must be placed much farther north, or in the 51st parallel of latitude, where the limits of the loess have been traced out by MM. Omalius D'Halloy, Dumont, and others, running east and west by Cologne, Juliers, Louvain, Oudenarde, and Courtrai in Belgium to Cassel, near Dunkirk in France.
The extent to which the valley has there been the receptacle of fine mud afterwards removed is most remarkable. The loess of Belgium was called "Hesbayan mud" in the geological map of the late M. Dumont, who, I am told, recognised it as being in great part composed of Alpine mud.
Impalpable Mud produced by the Grinding Action of Glaciers. Dispersion of this Mud at the Period of the Retreat of the great Alpine Glaciers. Continuity of the Loess from Switzerland to the Low Countries. Characteristic Organic Remains not Lacustrine. Alpine Gravel in the Valley of the Rhine covered by Loess. Geographical Distribution of the Loess and its Height above the Sea. Fossil Mammalia.
This section occurs at the village of Smeermass, and is about 60 feet deep, the lower 40 feet consisting of stratified gravel and the upper of 20 feet of loess. Not a few of them are still preserved in the museums of Maestricht and Leyden, together with some horns of deer, bones of the ox-tribe and other mammalia, and a human lower jaw, with teeth.
During the re-excavation of the basin of the Rhine successive deposits of loess of newer origin were formed at various heights; and it is often difficult to distinguish their relative ages, especially as fossils are often entirely wanting, and the mineral composition of the formation is so uniform. The loess in Belgium is variable in thickness, usually ranging from 10 to 30 feet.
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