// 'inchell Memorial 105 



bates on this public question, did he go over and over the evi- 

 dence for the possibilities of an artesian water supply. 



With what youthful enthusiasm he would still return from 

 a summer's scientific outing was most delightfully shown on 

 his return from the Lewis and Clark Exposition at Portland, from 

 which lie brought two of his own photographs of the Willamette 

 meteorite. This largest meteorite in the United States, 4 feet 

 in height through its cone shape, 10 feet in diameter through its 

 base, and weighing towards 15 tons, interested him most in 

 the details of its peculiar drill-like perforations about the base. 

 Which seemed to be due to air friction, and the sponge-like struc- 

 ture of the bottom, which he thought due to the decomposition 

 of some other mineral substances in the iron. 



That beneath all this scientific seriousness was a quiet sense 

 of humor was charmingly shown two summers later when he 

 reported a curious accidental deception. On examining a sup- 

 posed meteoric stone by thin sections he found it a fine grained 

 fragmental rock, with a metallic substance on the outside. As 

 lie could not account for this external metallic substance it 

 finally occurred to him that it might be aluminum which had 

 rubbed off from his pocket magnifying glass, as he had carried 

 them together in his pocket. Such proved to be the case, and 

 he then found similar aluminum specks on other stones of his 

 collection. Xo one could have appreciated such an accidental 

 joke better than he himself. 



Fruits of his energetic archaeological work for the Minne- 

 sota Historical Society were given to the Academy in 1907 by 

 his able paper on "The Prehistoric Aborigines of Minnesota and 

 their Migrations" and by his paper in May, 1900, on "Extinct 

 Pleistocene Mammals of Minnesota," and on "The Mammoth 

 in Minnesota," illustrated by a newly found tooth. The scien- 

 tific honesty and accuracy of the archaeologist was also remark- 

 ably shown in his highly interesting and original paper of June. 

 1908, on "Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony" (Bulletin Vol. 

 IV, pp. 380-384). After patiently binning up the facts of the 

 discovery of the falls he sums them up succinctly tints: 



"What a setting for some painter to put upon the canvas! 



"Two wandering, half-starved Frenchmen portaging an old 

 canoe along the east bank of the river. 



"The falls of St. Anthony just above them to the right. 



