406 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



tbe smallest of the three fragments in his yard. I have 

 samples from this smaller one and pictures of the two 

 larger ones which now lie partly out of the ground. 



The part of the field where the boulder lies is slightly 

 higher than the part to the north. Also, the ground 

 slopes gently to both the east and west and more abrupt- 

 ly to the south toward the edge of what was once a great 

 cypress swamp extending two miles farther south to the 

 Saline river. It is but a few hundred yards to the edge 

 of the swamp. Beyond the Saline, the foothills of the 

 Ozarks begin within a mile or two, and the altitude in- 

 creases rapidly within the next two miles. There seems 

 to be no possibility that the ice sheet could have extended 

 more than f onr or five miles to the sonth of this boulder ; 

 and I have found nothing in the nature of the soil or 

 topography to indicate that it even went beyond the 

 present location of this rock, though it could have done 

 so as has been indicated. That is, it could have gone 

 four or five miles farther at this particular point without 

 the necessity of climbing the mountain to the south. 



The surface soil about the boulder is described by Mr. 

 J. E. Whitchurch, Saline County Farm Advisor, as a 

 yellow or yellowish-gray silt loam such as is common to 

 much of the hill land of the county. Mr. Thompson says 

 that the soil immediately surrounding the rock at the 

 very top of this low ridge will raise more kinds of crops 

 than will the soil on the slopes but a few feet lower down. 

 This lower slope soil which evidently underlies that at 

 the crest is very acid and is described as a deep gray silt 

 loam. The same kind of soil outcrops along the road- 

 way and ditches to the northeast of Mr. Thompson's 

 farm. Mr. Thompson says that a well dug and drilled 

 about 200 feet south of the boulder came to the No. 5 

 coal at a depth of about 45 feet. He thinks that shale 

 and sandstone would be found at about 20 feet below the 

 boulder, basing his estimate on their known depth at 

 other places near. The elevation above sea level is ap- 

 proximately 380 feet. 



The stone is a light red granite. Careful estimates of 

 the size, made after some excavating, and of the density 



