NO. 2 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I918 97 



Many mullers and nictates lay promiscuously about, and two of the 

 latter were pitted on the grinding surface, showing secondary use as 

 mortars. Flint chips and projectiles seemed unusually numerous, but 

 potsherds, although of the customary types found on " Greenland," 

 were surprisingly few in number. 



Cliff-houses are not so i)lentiful as might be expected in the 

 breaks bordering the Walhalla I'lateau and these are, almost without 

 exception, small single-room storage cists built l)y the inhabitants 

 of the open houses among the pines and back some distance from the 

 rim. Many of these cists have been occupied recently as shelters by 

 white hunters — the smoke stains on the cave roof will not be con- 

 fused with those left by aborigines. Dwellings protected by shallow 

 caves are not unknown, however, and. although small, they add much 

 to the picturesqueness of the country and to the less easily under- 

 stood ruins of the mesa tops. Cliff-dwellings not visited during the 

 recent reconnoissance are reported along the trailless ledges far 

 below the tioor of " (Greenland '' ; others are know to exist in the 

 " sand hills " and the red ledges of Pahreah Plateau. The difficulty 

 of studying these remains is greatly enhanced by the infrequent 

 sources of water supply and lack of forage for saddle and pack 

 animals. As in other sections of the Southwest, the prehistoric dwell- 

 ings are not always to be found in the vicinity of existing springs 

 or water pockets. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CENTRAL MISSOURI 



Mr. Gerard Fowke, a collaborator of the bureau, made a recon- 

 noissance in the (Jzark region of south central Missouri. The pur- 

 pose of the work was to locate and examine, as far as was feasible, 

 all archeological remains, but with particular reference to caverns 

 which afford evidence of having been used as jilaces of shelter in 

 ])rehistoric times. As the area in question includes the principal 

 cave region lying east of the divide which separates these streams 

 from the drainage Ijasin of White River in the southwestern part of 

 the State, a careful investigation was desirable. 



It appears that Phelps and Pulaski Counties were centers of 

 aboriginal population. There are many caverns, large and small, 

 a majority of them showing abundant evidence of their former 

 occupancy. Potsherds, broken animal bones, mortar stones, flint 

 chips and spalls, broken implements of stone, bone perforators, and 

 especially mussel shells, may be found under the present floors of the 

 caves, and excavation shows them to continue to a considerable 

 depth, usually to the bottom of the fine, loose, cave earth which rests 



