FOWKE] ANTIQUITIES OF MISSOURI 95 
expert in selecting localities where digging would “‘pay,’’ and found 
aboriginal vessels literally by the carload; and they inspected the 
country so carefully that only by chance is a source of fresh supply 
discovered. Yet from time to time enough is disclosed to assure 
an explorer good results, provided always he can find the right 
place and secure permission to examine it. Two promising localities 
are now known which have never been worked, but the owners will 
not allow researches to be made. Undoubtedly many others await 
discovery. 
Occasionally a vessel of some description is found by a laborer and 
carried to a store where it is exchanged for goods; but specimens 
accumulate very slowly in this way. Mr. Beckwith, whose collection 
is famous, has been twenty-five years or longer in getting it together, 
during all which time it has been a matter of common knowledge that 
he is in the market for whatever is worth having; and most of his 
collection has come from his own tenants. He remarked ‘If I knew 
where pottery could be found, I would go there and dig for it.”’ 
More than thirty years ago, while the territory was practically 
undisturbed, Professor Conant carried on a very profitable explora- 
tion for the St. Louis Academy of Science. His principal work was 
along the west bank of St. John’s bayou, between Sikeston and New 
Madrid. The success of his efforts led to the selection of this vicinity 
as the site of the only mound excavating attempted. 
The work resulted solely in a verification of the information set 
forth above. 
Tue Hunter Mounps 
On the farm owned by Mr. A. B. Hunter, 7 miles north of New 
Madrid and half a mile south of Farrenburg on the Cotton Belt 
railway, is a group of mounds extending for half a mile or more along 
the west bank of St. John’s bayou, the extreme width of the group 
being about 200 yards. Much of the area on which these mounds 
stand was under cultivation when examined, so the exact number is 
uncertain; but there are not fewer than sixty. All of them have 
been more or less farmed over and thereby somewhat reduced in 
height; at present they range from 1 foot to 6 feet in height, and from 
30 to 75 feet in diameter. Five of the mounds are along the edge of 
the terrace overlooking the bayou; the others are behind these, on 
the nearly level ground. 
Near the south end of the group, at the edge of the terrace, is an 
amphitheater-like depression of about an acre, facing the bayou; it 
is said so much broken pottery occurs here that ‘‘in plowing, the plow 
sounds as if it is running through gravel.” It is generally supposed, 
perhaps correctly, that this is the site of a pottery factory; but no 
exploration could be made at the time. 
