"This Ozark lad will show you his store of walnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts and pecans and perhaps some chestnuts and butternuts, all speaking eloquently of the soil, the rain, the sunshine and the pure air of his country home." In the soil of the Ozark country Mr. Curran discovers the secret of the successful horticulture:

"From the limestone of Bonne Terre and the weathering porphyrys of the eastern part to the great galena formation of the Southwest extends a field of intensely interesting geological study. The soil content shows mineral saturation in many districts. Much of it contains iron which is said to be responsible for the rich color of the fruit and for flavors unexcelled by any fruit in the world. "Phosphate is richly present on many chert-covered ridges and hillsides, a prime necessity in any successful orchard region. The weathering of this stone gives a constant supply of this important plant food.

"Ninety per cent of the uncultivated lands of the region are in timberwhite, black, red, burr and post-oak, hickory, gum, walnut, bullpine, maple, elm and an unlimited variety of hardwoods, cover the hillsides, valleys and ridges, an ever-present reminder that the Ozarks lie in natural tree country. Where the forests are, there also are the forest fruits, and where wild fruits grow naturally, cultivated varieties thrive. The tree food is there and will do its work if given a chance."

CHAPTER XXIX.

LANDMARKS AND LEGENDS.

Elephas Americanus in the Ozarks-A Whole Pine Tree Top for a Meal-The Discovery at Carl Junction-Dr. Hambach's Conclusions-Zinc in Solution-Miners and Mineralogists Disagree-The Missourium Teristocolodon-Dr. Koch, Scientist-A Trade with the British Museum-The Market for Zuglodons-Star Curiosity of Wyman's Museum in 1842-Mastodon Beds at Kimmswick-An Amazed Professor-Tom Sauk Falls— Allen Hinchey's Indian Legend-The Footprints Which Laclede Found-Lilliput on the Meramec-A Scientific Investigation-Gerard Fowke on "The Clayton Ax"-Beckwith's Discoveries in Southeast Missouri-Eugene Field's Folk Lore Study-Alexander, King of the Missouri Voodoos-Mary Alicia Owen-The Initiation-Some Philosophic Conclusions-The Mamelles-A Variety of Topographical Eccentricities— Freak Work by the Water Courses-Murder Rocks-The Granite Potato Patch-Shut In and Stone Battery-The Pinnacles-Knob Noster-Cedar Pyramid-Treasure Traditions-The Springfield Chart-A Dying Sailor's Secret-The Michigan Man's Unsatisfactory Experience-Three Turkey Tracks and Three Arrows-Mystery of Garrison Cave-A Tradition of the Delaware Indians-Woody Cave in Tancy.

I have just paid my first visit to the mastodon beds of Kimmswick, and they are the most wonderful I have ever seen. Missouri may well boast of them as a page out of the history of the world that has no duplicate. It is a treasure most rare. Every piece of this great collection ought to be carefully preserved until science may reach the point where it can put this page in the right place in the history of the earth and leave the story complete.-Professor W. H. Holmes, Curator, Smithsonian Institution.

Elephas Americanus roamed in all parts of the Ozarks. Skeletons have been unearthed near Kimmswick on the bank of the Mississippi and at Carl Junction within three miles of the Kansas border and at several places between those extreme limits. The bones taken out of a zinc mine at Carl Junction in 1892 were shipped to Washington University. Dr. Hambach, the paleontologist, said they indicated an animal from thirteen to eighteen feet in height. Elephas Americanus was from twenty-five to thirty feet long-could not walk the streets of St. Louis without burning off its back all of the long hair by contact with the trolley wires. One of the tusks was nine feet long and nine inches in diameter. This animal had teeth with a grinding surface nine inches long and four inches wide. Elephas Americanus of the great tooth and greater tusks walked on four legs, and ponderous underpinning it was. The ball on which the hind leg moved in the hip socket is as large as the body of a man. The length of that thigh bone can only be proven by proportions. The ball and part of the thigh bone have been found, but where the bone tapers midway between thigh and knee there is a break. Better preserved is the upper bone of the fore leg. The first of the joints of the backbone, that on which the head rolled, has been found and so has the last of the vertebræ, that from which the tail extended. This animal had a foot which was a mass of bones, like the hog's foot. Coarse

Vol. II-17