14 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



W. W. Rathbone— Photo. 

 TOADSTOOL ROCK 



winter and from heat in sum- 

 mer. Situated near any 

 large city, it would yield a 

 small fortune as a dancing 

 hall, always dry, always cool, 

 but never cold. Along the 

 curving cliff in which this 

 cave is situated, in most 

 places the softer rocks below 

 have disappeared leaving an 

 overhanging cliff. But close 

 to the cave opening, the over- 

 hanging cliff has fallen and 

 lies a crumbling mass on the 

 slope below leaving the new 

 face of the cliff smooth and 

 unweathered. Apparently 



these recent falls were due to the earthquake of over a hundred years ago. 



And the trees have grown since the cliff broke away. 



In another nearby valley, an undercut cliff shelters livestock, a great 

 assortment of farm machinery, and a winter's supply of corn fodder. 



Back over the ridge and on down Clarida Branch toward Bay Creek we 

 pass toadstool formations imitating those in the Garden of the Gods, but 

 mostly hidden in the thick brush. A balanced rock forty feet by fifty feet and 

 thirty-five feet high stands on a triangular base only twenty by twenty by 

 ten feet, but is too densely hidden by trees and shrubs to be photographed. 



Clarida Branch joins Bay Creek near the Belle Smith Spring. Bay 

 Creek, after it leaves the hills and enters the old river valley, for thirty- 

 three miles, is very sluggish and muddy and has a current up stream 

 in flood time as mentioned before. A few hundred feet above where it 

 is forded at the mount of Clarida Branch, the bank has a steep slope to one 

 of the characteristic curving bluffs. At one place this bluff was deeply 

 undercut as was the bluff at the "Sand Cave," at Clarida Spring, and 

 at many other places near. In fact, a cave had formed. But the roof 

 of the cave fell in and most of it was washed away so that the water from 

 the slope above now falls over a new cliff further back and runs under 

 a natural bridge whose arch is twenty-six feet wide, sixteen feet thick, 

 and whose under surface is twenty-four feet from the bed below. The 

 span is one-hundred fifty feet in the clear. On three occasions we have 

 tried to make the picture of this bridge. Though armed with the best of 

 cameras, we have failed of very great success, for it is too big and too 

 high up the slope and has too many trees in front to be successfully 

 photographed. 



I have given in detail some of the most interesting features in three 

 somewhat widely separated regions of the Ozark region. There are many 

 more matters of natural and historical interest which add charm to this 

 somewhat misrepresented area. The, archeologist finds much in every 

 county telling of the busy life of the red men and their predecessors. 

 Shawneetown is built upon the remains left by the former inhabitants. This 

 is made evident by the wealth of stone implements and pottery unearthed 

 in that vicinity. Indian graveyards marked by stone mounds beneath which 



