204 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



In the counties of Saline, Gallatin, Hardin, Pope, Massac 

 and Johnson, the variety of natural phenomena is not surpassed 

 by any equal area in the state. The Ohio river on the border 

 alternately cuts through highlands and crosses lowlands. 



Near it and its tributary, the Wabash, lie strings of lakes, the 

 remnants of former meandering channels. Two other tribu- 

 taries, Bay Creek and the Cache River, flow in opposite direc- 

 tions from their common source in the cypress swamps north 

 of Massac County, but occupy, with the swamps, the old bed 

 of a river walled in by high bluffs and with a valley large 

 enough to carry the Ohio of today. In fact, in time of floods, 

 a distinct current from the Ohio flows up the Bay valley, 

 through the swamps, and on down the Cache. The Saline 

 River, except in its upper tributaries, sluggishly meanders 

 through a rich farming country elevated but little above the 

 Ohio. Overlooking these valleys are the Ozark mountains or 

 hills, a dissected plateau, rising so abruptly that a change of 

 nearly 600 feet in elevation may be made in a half hour's 

 climb. Notably, along the Gold Hill axis in southeastern Sa- 

 line County and at the Old Stone Fort, a few miles further 

 to the west, and near Parker City, upheavals resulting in fault- 

 ing and bending followed by rapid erosion have brought to 

 view massive sandstones and limestones. These bluffs, topped 

 with the conglomerate sandstones or millstone grit, command a 

 view of the whole county. Weathering has produced curious 

 forms and many overhanging ledges. Strata, tilted as much 

 as 40° in places, tell the story of the mighty forces at work 

 in the past. In the elevated limestone section of Eagle Cliff 

 (the "Prospect Hill" of Worthen) the entrance to a cave com- 

 mands a view of a large part of two counties. This cave prob- 

 ably had its origin in the upheaval which opened cracks which 

 have since widened into extensive chambers as the limestone 

 has dissolved. The explorer needs no one to guide him back to 

 the opening if he remembers that the strata in this "block 

 mountain" always slope down to the east and south. Standing 

 here on the sub-carboniferous rocks, the view for twenty miles 

 to the northwest discloses a rolling plain lying several hun- 

 dred feet below — a plain covered with glacial drift almost to 

 the foot of the hills and underlaid with the true coal measures, 

 the richest in the state. Frequent slips, revealed only in the 

 many mines, tell of the extent of the disturbances that pro- 



