ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



\Y. W 

 UNWEATHERED CLIFF NEAR SAND CAVE 



Rathbone — Photo. 



tending over three counties. Examination of many blocks rolled off from 

 the cliff, shows there is always the absence of weathering of the side where 

 the cleavage occurred while the old outer side is always badly worn. In 

 nearly all cases, tress as much as ten to fifteen inches in diameter are stand- 

 ing in the path taken by the fallen rock, which indicates that these falls 

 occurred sometime before these same trees began to grow. In this hill 

 region of Illinois, and nowhere else in the State so far as has come to 

 my knowledge, there is common knowledge, of a traditional nature, among 

 the native stock of hill dwellers, of the great New Madrid earthquake of 

 1811-12. This has led me to question whether there might not be some 

 connection between that earthquake and these huge falls of rock. 



Under the southeast corner of the mountain, the lower layers have 

 rotted out from under the cliff, leaving an overhanging portion. A num- 

 ber of years ago. four of us who were caught on the mountain in a rain, 

 took refuge here, hoping to complete our picture making after the rain. 

 The clouds drifted so low in the valley that we were above them when 

 the sky partially cleared and we were, momentarilv. now in them our- 

 selves. We stayed all day in the dry. cooking by a smoky fire and catch- 

 ing drinking water in a bottle from the dripping cliff, much to the annoy- 

 ance of a phoebe who had her nest far back under the roof. At night, 

 being destitute of dry fuel, covers, and food, we braved the cold drizzle. 

 and tramped around the mountain and down the slope through the dense 

 undergrowth to a farmhouse a half mile away and slept on feather beds 

 on the floor before an old-fashioned stone fireplace. Whenever I have re- 

 turned in June, the phoebe is on her nest in the same place. I have ob- 

 served, elsewhere, this habit of the phoebe of using the same nesting place 

 year after year. 



The roads in the valleys on either side of Womble Mountain converge, 



