206 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Nowhere in Illinois is the enormity of Nature's work in de • 

 positing and then removing great quantities of rock better 

 shown than in this same vicinity at Womble mountain, a mesa- 

 like rock of reddish sandstone, having an area of about ten 

 acres, being slightly split diagonally across, displaying fore- 

 set beds and other evidences of shore lines, and standing far 

 above the surrounding valleys. The even sky line, as seen 

 by looking from it across twenty miles of the Ozark Hills 

 into Kentucky, together with corresponding strata across the 

 valleys, make it clear that these same valleys, once filled with 

 rock strata laid down under the sea, have been carved out by 

 running water and that the process still continues. 



The perpendicular walls show two degrees of weathering, 

 one of long continuance giving a long talus slope on all sides, 

 with "slide rock," such as Hornaday describes in the Canadian 

 Rockies, and another more recent, wherever huge blocks have 

 broken off and rolled or slid down the old talus slope. One of 

 these, 225 feet in circumference and 35 feet high, locally called 

 "Table Rock," has slid down a hundred feet, remaining hori- 

 zontal. The east and south sides show little weathering, as 

 also the corresponding niche in the cliff above, from which it 

 came, while the west end and north sides are rugged, corre- 

 sponding with the undisturbed portion of the cliff. Large 

 trees grow between" this huge block and its former position. 

 There is nowhere much evidence of gradations between these 

 two stages of weathering over a carefully studied region in 

 three counties. In many places portions of cliffs have fallen off, 

 but none more recently than the beginning of the growth of 

 10 and 15-inch forest trees now growing where the mass passed 

 as it slid. These facts, together with the fact that in this hill 

 region of Illinois and nowhere else in Illinois, there is com- 

 mon knowledge of a traditional nature among the native stock 

 of hill dwellers concerning the great New Madrid earthquake 

 of 1811 and 1812, have led me to question whether there could 

 be any connection between that earthquake and these huge 

 falls of rock. 



Follow me for one day, starting before daylight, for an 18- 

 mile drive from Stonefort or a 10-mile drive from Ozark or 

 Simpson to the Belle Smith Spring. The nearest way is to 

 follow the rocky stream bed of Hunting Branch for the last 



