42 



F. W. SAKDESOIf SAI^T AKTHONY FAXJvS 



monlli of Mimnehalia creek is therefore evideut That the Lower and 

 Deer Park gorges were cut first by an arm of the river is also evident, and 

 was done donbtless with a receding cataract at every stage. In the end 

 of the Deer Park gorge was once a large cataract. There is no reason 

 to question Grant's theory for the abandoning of the channel and gorge 

 on the west side of the island, namely, that the cataract on the east side 

 reached the head of the island first, and thus drew all the stream from 

 the west channel. That the Deer Park gorge was made and abandoned 

 at a time when the Upper Minnehaha gorge had lieen only Ij^un is evi- 

 dent from comparison of distanc-es reached by two gradnally receding 

 falls. Saint Anthony falls having receded 6 miles while M in nehaha falk 

 receded one-eighth of a mile in the same time. The great size of the 

 stream acconnts for the rapid making of Deer Park gorge. 



A feature which has been overlooked and which compels some revision 

 of Grant's interpretation of the three parts of the gorge is that of a 

 strong terrace within the Deer Park and Lower gorges. Considering the 

 tract of land between the abandoned channel and gorge and the Missis- 

 sippi river, the top of this tract is rather level and may be called the first 

 terrace. It is bordered by a quite uniform scarp of the abandoned chan- 

 nel, as liefore described. Between this scarp and the gorge is the second 

 terrace, resting on the limestone ledge. The descent from the limestone 

 ledge to the bottom of liilinnehaha gorge is in plac-es a single scarp, but 

 mostly there are two scarps with a distinct terrace, the third terrace l>e- 

 tween them. On the point of land l>etween Hilinnehaha creek and the 

 river the third terrace is well shown. Two large buildings of the Sol- 

 diers' Home stand on it, and their third-^tory windows are aljout on a 

 level with the first story of buildings which are on the next higher ter- 

 race. The third terrac-e here is aliout 30 feet below the second and T5 

 feet above the river. Its top for 10 feet or more is made up of great 

 blocks of limestone which rest on Saint Peter sandstone, all of which is 

 well seen in the nearly vertical cliff nest to the river. 



The third terrace is a part of the original floor of the gorge, and the 

 great angular limestone blocfe on its top show it to have heen made at the 

 foot of receding falls. The same terrace extends, with one narrow inter- 

 ruption, up to a point nearly opposite the mouth of the Upper gorge. It 

 extends again in the Deer Park gorge for short distances, and in the mid- 

 dle of the gorge's head a remnant lies at about 30 feet below the top of 

 the limestone ledge. In one place midway in the Lower gorge a little 

 lower terrace lies on the side of the third terrace. 



From the position of these block-covered terrac-es I am led to think that 

 the fall was 30 to 40 feet high, and that the gorge when abandoned by the 



