[124] On the Sauk and Foxes, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 21. For the Iowa, see Brackenridge's _Journal_, in our volume vi, note 13.--ED. [125] Changes in the river have obliterated the channel here called the Cut-Off.--ED. [126] The coal-fields of Missouri have an area of about twenty-six thousand square miles; a line drawn southwest from the mouth of the Des Moines River to Vernon County roughly bounds the district. Northwest of this line every county contains coal, and there are outlying patches on the southeast.--ED. [127] Arrow Rock (the Pièrre à flèche of early French explorers) stands on the west side of the river, in Saline County. The first settlements in the county were made in the neighboring bottoms, and the earliest ferry west of Franklin crossed the river at this point. The rock gave its name to a town founded in 1829, which for a time was the county seat and an important shipping point.--ED. [128] Le Mine (Lamine, or La Mine) River empties into the Missouri seven miles above Booneville, Cooper County. Renaudière named the stream Rivière à la Mine, in 1723. It is about a hundred and thirty miles long. Salt Fork, here called "saline fork," the principal tributary, crosses Saline county roughly parallel with the Missouri.--ED. [129] In 1720 Philip Renault, director-general of mines of the French colonies in America, sent prospecting parties from Fort Chartres, into Missouri and Arkansas, to seek gold and silver. These curious "diggings" are by some supposed to have been made by his men. Charles Lockhart, mentioned in the text, employed a number of men in 1819 in digging over some of these old pits, but without making any important discoveries.--ED. [130] Grand Pass received its name from the fact that the Osage trace, connecting farther west with the Santa Fé trail, here followed the narrow divide between Salt Fork and the Missouri bottom. This "pass" is about a mile and a half long, and in one place so narrow that a stone can be thrown across. A hotel was built here in 1835, and a small village now occupies the spot. For a short time during a flood in 1875, part of the water of Salt Fork flowed across the divide.--ED. [131] The entire courses of both the Tabeau and Little Tabeau are within Lafayette County. The mouth of the larger is near the boundary between Ray and Carroll counties. The name is sometimes erroneously spelled Tabo and Tebo.--ED. [132] For derivation of this name, see Brackenridge's _Journal_, in our volume vi, note 14.--ED. [133] This stream debouches at the boundary between Jackson and Lafayette counties, south of the Missouri. Its name is usually shortened to Fire Creek. Lewis and Clark applied the name Fire Prairie Creek to a stream which entered from the north. No stream nearer than Clear Creek, or Fishing Creek, five miles above Fire Creek, answers their description.--ED.