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to Salem, and on the east side of Harrison County. West of the Loess 
belt the lower Mitchell limestone is still the surface stone. Springs are 
not infrequent, and their waters combine to form small creeks that flow 
over the exposed edges of the strata until they reach the upper drainage 
level of the sinkhole area. 
Small caves are common over the true cavernous limestone area and 
clearly show their connection with one or more sinkholes. The best 
known, and perhaps the largest, example of this class of caves in Orange 
County is found three miles west of Orleans, on the Peacher farm. Here 
the roof of the original cave has fallen at some period in the past and 
made two caves of what was once but one. The mouth of the west cave 
is large and opens into a wide room that terminates at the other end in 
a small but characteristic sinkhole. The outer roof of the east cave is 
low, and it can only be entered by crawling for quite a distance. Once 
inside, the explorer finds a capacious passage in which the sides below 
the middle converge to a narrow channel. The walls are covered with 
mud, and after.a heavy rain both caves are filled with muddy water. Such 
so-called caves are a part of the underground drainage system of the 
country, and are peculiar in that they are near muddy passages, devoid 
of stalactites or other features that make caves so interesting to most 
persons. If it is kept in mind that sinkholes proper are circular basins, 
whose sides form a gradual slope from the rim to the bottom, they will 
be readily distinguished from another class where one or more of the 
sides is a precipitous wall of rock. The first are doubtless due to the 
slow chemical and mechanical forces that have tunneled the subterranean 
channel, the latter to the collapse of the roof of a vast cavernous opening 
whose arch had become weakened by a vertical fissure. At places there 
is evidence that the roof of the cave has fallen as much as ninety feet. 
This class of depressions impart to the landscape a peculiar, rugged, 
broken aspect, and impress the beholder with a feeling that old earth 
may at any moment slip from under his feet. Occasionally, at each end 
of the fallen mass, an opening may be found to the cave below. But 
usually the openings are small and do not appear to be anything more 
than woodchuck holes, until some winter morning the moist air of the 
cave, as it rushes out, is touched, as if by fairy fingers, and the shrubbery 
growing near hung with festoons of hoar frost. The angular depressions 
are found west of the small circular basins, and near the foot of the 
Kaskaskia group sandstone hills. Great blocks of Lost River chert cum- 
