686 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS. 



pebble, of the average size of a lion's egg; in or near one band, seven 

 flint arrow points; and in or near the other hand, three large scales of 

 the alligator gar — that perhaps had also served as arrow points — com- 

 pleted the sepulchral deposit. 



My second anchor stone, Fig. 5 (Plate II), the one figured In Prehis- 

 toric Fishing, was brought up from the bottom of the Illinois Eiver, 

 half a mile below the confluence of the Sangamon, by one of the Gov- 

 ernment boats employed in improving the channel lor navigation. It 

 is of compact, yellow sandstone, the most prominent rock of the coal 

 measures underlying the Sangamon and Illinois blnfls in this county. 

 It weighs 34^ pounds ; is symmetrically proportioned; circular in con- 

 tour; 12 inches in diameter by Giin thickness at the center, with neatly 

 rounded edges, and is encircled by a groove, li inches wide and three- 

 fourths of an inch deep, cut across the face equally on both side?. The 

 surface of the stone is not smooth, but presents the api)earance of hav- 

 ing been " bush-hammered " — to use a term of modern stonecutters — the 

 result of pecking with sharp-pointed flints or other hard stones. The 

 groove around it is regularly and skillfullj' cut, and shows throughout 

 the pitting of the pointed stone instrument that shaped it. 



Not long after the recovery of this anchor stone the dredge brought 

 up another one from the bottom of the river, at a })oint 2 miles farther 

 down stream, that was almost an exact copy of the one I have just 

 described, in material, dimensions, and form. Unfortunately it escaiied 

 the notice of any one capable of properly appreciating its value, and 

 fell into the possession of an ignorant German who at the time was 

 employed as a laborer on the boat. His estimate of this interesting 

 nautical relic was more practical than scientific ; and carrying it to his 

 home he there utilized it as a weight in the family kraut barrel that 

 stood in a corner of his kitchen. In this ignoble service I found it 

 and attempted its deliverance ; but, suspicious that my desiie to obtain 

 the stone si)rung from a secret knowledge of some extraordinary in- 

 trinsic value it possessed, neither price nor persuasion would induce 

 the kraut-eating plebeian to i)art with it, and I sadly lelt it in its 

 vulgar obscurity. Before another opportunity was presented for re- 

 newing my efforts to secure it the Teuton's hovel was accidentally 

 destroyed by fire, and the much-coveted anchor stone was shattered 

 in fragments by the intense heat. 



A few years later, in the same locality, I discovered another anchor 

 stone near the doorstep of a small farm house at the foot of the bluft's 

 on the west side of the Illinois. The farmer, who was also a fisher- 

 man, found it at the river's edge at low water, and, noticing its peculiar 

 shape and surface marks and the encircling groove, he was intelligent 

 enough to recognize it as as "Indian relic" and mercciniry enough 

 to hold it for a good price. This stone anchor had not been finished 

 when it was lost or abandoned by its ancient owner. The rough 

 angles of the rock had been ])ecked away and rounded with sharp 

 flints and the block reduced to an irregular oval, as shown in Fig. Q 



