PAPERS OX GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 405 



DESCRIPTIOX OF A BOULDER XEAE THE SOUTH- 

 EEX LIMIT OF GLACLITIOX IX ILLIXOIS 



Clarence Boxxell, Towxship High School, 

 Hakrisburg, III. ' 



The boulder to be described is of significance only on 

 account of its size and of its location near the southern 

 limit of glaciation in America. The published maps of 

 the glaciated areas shovr ''farthest south" in glacial 

 movements to be in Saline county on a line curving 

 southward to follow approximately the east and west 

 trend of the Saline river, which in turn follows rather 

 closely the northern base of the Ozark hills. 



It should be noted that boulders are not a prominent 

 feature of the southern Illinois drift as they are north 

 of the Shelbyville moraine in the later deposits. The 

 earlier geologists mention granite boulders in Saline 

 county as large as the two fists, but I have not been able 

 to find specimens during a residence of eighteen years. 

 It has been necessary to import a few from the old home 

 fann in central Illinois for class room demonstrations. 



Reports from students, of what was supposed in their 

 neighborhood to be a ''meteorite" lying in a field just 

 southeast of the village of Carrier Mills, led me to this 

 boulder. It lies on a low ridge in a cultivated field 

 owned by ^Ir. ^larshall Thompson who lives on the place. 

 The exact location is near the middle of the south line 

 of the STVI4 of the XT:i4 of Sec. 2 Tw]?. 10 South, Range 

 10 East of the 3d Principal ^leridian. About ten years 

 ago, Mr. Thompson, while plowing deeper than usual, 

 scraped the top of the stone which was covered with 

 earth. Curiosity led him to uncover it and, later, to dig 

 under and set two sticks of dynamite with which he raised 

 it to the surface, or nearly so, at the same time breaking it 

 into three pieces. It dilTered so much from the ordinary 

 stratified rock fragments which are more or less abund- 

 ant in the county that the "meteoric" theory of its 

 oriein arose. In fact, people were found who "had seen 

 it fall" sometime. in the dim past. Mr. Thompson has 



