FOWKE] ANTIQUITIES OF MISSOURI 93 
lower Carboniferous formation of Missouri contains a vast quantity 
of chert, and where this has weathered out of the parent rock without 
being disintegrated in the process the aborigines naturally gathered 
such of it as they could use. The limestone of Arrow Rock being 
comparatively soft and easily weathered, workable nodules are not 
rare along the shore, some of them containing solid cores capable of 
being formed into implements several inches in length. Evidence 
that some work was done here may be found in a little terrace near 
the upper end of the bluff, where a few square rods of surface are 
strewn with chips. But greater quantities of chips extending over 
larger areas, are common in places considerable distances from any 
available flint in place. 
No one now living at Arrow Rock ever heard of the origin of the 
name as stated by Coues and by others before him, though who 
these are can not now be recalled. Only one tradition exists to 
account for it. A number of young warriors assembled on a sand bar 
opposite the cliff to test their power with the bow by ascertaining who 
could send an arrow farthest out into the stream, the victor to wed 
the chief’s daughter. One of them shot clear across the river, his 
arrow lodging in a crevice high above the water; and so the cliff was 
thenceforward known as ‘“‘The arrow rock.” No citizen of the place 
has ever heard of any other explanation of the term. 
A RECONNOISSANCE IN SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI 
In 1879 and 1880 the people in the neighborhood of Charleston [Missouri] discovered 
that the pottery in which the mounds of this region seem to have been unusually rich 
had a considerable commercial value. A regular mining fever at once broke out and 
spread so rapidly that in some instances as many as twenty-five or thirty men, women, 
and children could be seen digging for pottery in one field at the same time.@ 
This paragraph gives voice to a widespread impression which 
exists, that in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas all, 
or nearly all, mounds contain pottery, often in so great quantities 
that he must be indeed an enthusiastic collector who would not 
presently terminate his explorations through sheer satiety. 
Acting on this supposition, researches were undertaken by the 
writer, in southeastern Missouri, in the hope and with the expectation 
of securing a large or at least a typical collection. Only a short time 
was required to expose the error of this belief. 
Nearly every point recommended as worth investigating in 
Stoddard, Scott, Mississippi, and New Madrid counties was visited. 
Collectors, farmers, and other persons who were presumed to have 
knowledge of or interest in such matters were interviewed, and their 
advice and assistance sought. Almost without exception they were 
a¥rom Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 183, 1890-91, Washington, 1894. Collectors 
had been busy in the region for several years prior to the date given. 
