FOWKE] ANTIQUITIES OF MISSOURI 91 
The area excavated measures less than 30 feet in diameter in any 
direction and not half the earth in this limited space was examined. 
Neither was this the most promising site; in other places on the ridge 
many more specimens have been gathered up than in this field and 
more graves uncovered, and the surface is more thickly strewn with 
potsherds, bones, and flints. 
The pottery was abundant, of good quality, and entirely different 
in form and decoration from any other ware found in explorations 
along the river. Nearly all the impressions are such as would be 
made with small rounded or pointed bones. 
No agricultural implements of bone, shell, or stone were found, 
except one fragment which seems to be the end of a small flint hoe, 
but shows no polish. There was one piece of coarse sandstone, used 
for sharpening bone implements. 
The only vegetable food discovered was a handful of charred 
acorns in one of the pits. 
All indications point to continuous occupancy by a tribe whose 
subsistence was derived from hunting and fishing. The numerous 
scapule of buffalo bear no marks to show that they were used for 
digging; some scrapers, skinners, and polishers were made from 
pieces of these bones, and other implements made of bones of smaller 
mammals and of birds were found. The entire absence of cutting or 
piercing implements of flint from an area where bushels of flakes and 
chips can be gathered from the surface in a day, and where the ground 
is filled with them to the subsoil, is a most perplexing feature. Boys 
and collectors have gathered all finished and imperfect implements 
to a depth where the plow can turn them up; but flakes continue in 
quantity to a greater depth than the plow has ever reached, and it 
would seem that many rejects, at least, should be in the pits. 
There is no evidence as yet, except Judge West's statement regard- 
ing the similarity of pottery, to connect the builders of the ‘ Fort” 
with the dwellers on the village site. The former was seemingly 
occupied for only a short time or at irregular intervals, for although 
much desultory digging has been carried on at different places within 
the ‘*Fort,”? no one in the neighborhood could recall the discovery 
of pottery, flint chips, or any other remains existing so profusely 
around the little ‘‘mounds.”’ 
The very limited amount of investigation so far made here does not 
justify any theory, argument, or conclusion, but the site is well 
worthy of most thorough research. The following item may have 
some bearing on the question of the time at which it was occupied. 
In an article by John P. Jones, of Keytesville, Mo., on ‘‘ Incidents 
of Early Travel in Missouri,” this statement appears:* ~ 
La Harpe’s Journal has the following account of a voyage to the Missouris and Osages: 
“Dec. 29th, 1719, M. de Bienville received a letter from M. Dutisme, of the Kaskaskias, 
aIn the Kansas City Review of Science, p. 20, May, 1881. 
