Arrow Lake
an expansion of the Columbia river, in British Columbia, Canada; about 95 miles long from N. to S.; often regarded as forming two lakes -Upper and Lower Arrow Lake.
ARROWROOT. (1) In botany, the English name of the botanical genus maranta, the type of the endogenous order Marantacex. The flowers of maranta are in long, close, spike-like panicles, with irregular corollas. The root is a fleshy corm, which, when washed, grated, strained through a sieve, I through a sieve, and again repeatedly washed, furnishes the substance so much prized as good for invalids, which is described under 2. (2) In commerce, the starch extracted from the rhizomes of a maranta, and exported to England in large quantities from the East and West Indies, and from Africa, each importation taking the name of the place from which it comes.
Thus they have East Indian arrowroot, Bermuda arrowroot, St. Vincent arrowroot, Natal arrowroot, etc. Arrowroot is adulterated either by the mixing together of various qualities of arrowroot, or by the admixture of other starches, such as potato or tapioca.
ARROYO MOLINOS (ar-oi'o-mō-lē'nõs), a town of Spain, in Estremadura, 27 miles S. S. E. of Caceres. Here, on ARSENAL Oct. 28, 1811, a body of the French sent out by Soult on a foraging expedition was surprised by a much larger English force under Lord Hill. An engagement took place, the result of which is differently appreciated by the historians of the two nations. The English took 1,300 prisoners, but the French retreated in good order.
ARRU ISLANDS (ar'ö), a group of over 80 islands in the Dutch East Indies, lying W. of New Guinea, with a united area of about 2,650 square miles and a population of about 23,000. The largest island is Tanna-Besar (77 miles long by 50 broad). The surface is low, and the coasts are steep and inaccessible, on the E. side fringed with coral reefs. The soil is covered with the most luxuriant vegetation. The islands are remarkably rich in animal life. The inhabitants resemble the Melanesians of New Guinea more than the natives of the Moluccas.
There is an active trade, but not in native hands. Cotton and woolen goods, iron and copper wares, Chinese pottery, knives, rum, rice, opium, and arrack are imported, and bartered for mother-ofpearl, trepang, edible nests, pearls, tortoise-shell, and the skins of birds of paradise.