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NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



service, and electric cars to cross the 

 Missouri River bridge: reach by Mo. P. 

 and M. K. & T. R. R. main lines and 

 C. & A. branch line. — A. C. Burrill and 

 T. Lueker. 



Creve Coeur Lake Area. (A2.) 

 Thousands of red-winged blackbirds, 

 bronzed grackles, and a few rusty black- 

 birds join every evening in large flocks 

 near Creve Coeur Lake, on sandy land 

 overgrown with scouring rushes (Equise- 

 tum hiemale), broken over in autumn 

 into a matted mass under which the red- 

 wings spend the coldest, windiest nights 

 in perfect comfort, while the sand ab- 

 sorbs all rains. Altitude 460 ft. plus. 

 Interurban from St. Louis or 17 mi. on 

 C. R. I. & P. R. R. to Vigua, Mo.— 

 A. C. Burrill and Otto Widman. 



Caveland: Stone County Great Marvel 

 and Little Fairy Caves: Lake Taneycomo. 

 (A3 or B2.) (Partly proposed, partly 

 available.) Stone County has two 

 known andvery beautiful caves only 2 mi. 

 apart, steeply intersected topography. 



Some virgin timber yet remains, of 

 cedar, hickory and elm chiefly, but also 

 black walnut, persimmon, pawpaw, 

 hackberry, red-bud, buckbrush, ash, 

 common dogwood, sumac, and black 

 gum, while shortleaf pine occurs near 

 Fairy Cave and mistletoe is rare. Deer, 

 wolf, red and gray foxes, bobcat, opos- 

 sum, and all fur-bearers occur along this 

 grand White River country; wild turkey, 

 great white heron and egrets, great blue 

 heron, bittern, bald eagle and rarely the 

 Golden eagle. 



Great Marvel Cave (C4) is easy of 

 access, charmingly located, and varied in 

 structure; its Auditorium the largest 

 cave room in the world, with the largest 

 unsupported dome and with fine accous- 

 tic properties; its Gulf of Doom, awful 

 and forbidding; its battery with a 100,000 

 bats; its great white throne of mammoth 

 onyx stalagmite 8 ft. high; and the cave 

 fauna of its Mystic River, Lost River, 

 No-Name River, Lake Genevieve and a 

 waterfall 90 ft. high- blind fish, spiders, 

 flies and wasps. Entered through a 

 tangle of vines. 



Fairy Cave (A2) is a smaller cave, 

 almost as easy of access, but famed 

 for the beautiful scenery in it, a jewel in 

 varied colors and formations, in vaults 

 125 ft. high. Animal life in it is confined 

 to three species of salamander and two or 

 three of bats — -one salamander with 

 tinj'^ specks, another dark green with like 

 specks, five inches long, shy, fairly 

 good eyes; and the famous white blind 

 salamander (Typhlotriton spelaeus) are 

 quite common, though found only in 

 this region; the small brown bat, the 

 large white species, and the long-eared 



species in less numbers. Centipedes, 

 scorpions, an occasional diamond rattler, 

 are reported in this region. Altitude 

 1000 to 1425 ft. — Leulla Owen and Waldo 

 Powell. 



Lake Taneycomo (B2, A3) 24 mi. long, 

 formed by big power site dam on the wild 

 White River scenery of rough hillsides 

 and canyons. At the town of Branson 

 on the lake, can be seen the magnificent 

 curves of the beautiful White River 

 walled in by steep cliffs and high bluffs, 

 with kingfishers, spotted sandpipers, 

 and green heron, etc., and all the rarer 

 birds of the Ozarks mentioned under 

 "The Wild Tracts of Pineries of the Cur- 

 rent River." Of insectivorous birds, 

 the nighthawk, chimney swift and six 

 kinds of swallows abound; 5 wood- 

 peckers including the red-bellied and 

 six of flycatchers including the great- 

 crested and Acadian; 10 sparrows includ- 

 ing the larkfinch; and in May a great 

 variety of warblers (18), as the sycamore 

 warbler and Louisiana water-thrush. 

 The details of the distribution of the 

 nearly 90 birds to be seen here of a May 

 day are given by Widman {Trans. Acad. 

 Sci. St. Louis, XXIV, no. 8: 70-77). 

 Altitude 750 ft. and less. 



Reach Fairy Cave on Mo. P. Branch 

 to Reeds' Spring, Stone County, and (a) 

 5 mi. south to R. Waldo E. Powell Park 

 and farm to cave; Gerber is one depot 

 south of this and (a) or (w) 3 mi. S.W. ; 

 2 depots southeast is Branson, Taney 

 County, Mo., and (a) to Forsythe, Mo., 

 at dam. — A. C. Burrill and Waldo Powell. 



Roaring River and Chinquapin Forma- 

 tion. (A3 and B2.) River boils out of 

 the base of a mountain and contains 

 bass, and the yellow, blue and channel 

 catfish. The trees include chinquapin 

 oak. 



Cassville on Frisco R. R. from 

 MonettI, Mo. Altitude 1300 t9 1550 ft. 



pMeramec State Park and virgin timber. 

 (A3.) On the Burlington Escarpment 

 foothills of the northern Ozarks 4700 

 acres for a park, 4050 being timber, the 

 greater part virgin forest with 12 caves: 

 Bat Cave has bats; Fisher cave; Bear 

 Cave. Altitude 850 to 1100 ft. 



Sullivan on Frisco R. R., Franklin 

 County, is two hours by rail and three 

 (a) from St. Louis. (W) 2| mi. east 

 (hotel; or farm houses in the park). — 

 E. T. Grether. 



Greer Springs Area. (A3.) Heavily 

 wooded southeast upper slope of Ozarks 

 shows shortleaf pine, oak and much 

 underbrush in mixture; black walnut, 

 and hickories in the bottoms. Here 

 gushes a large spring from the base of a 

 small limestone ledge. Altitude 500 

 to 900 ft. 



