658 



THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



used, now and then, as a wagon-track. In this notch I dis- 

 covered the soil to be thickly strewed with pieces of sharp, 

 opaque quartz. These were commonly of a white color, and 

 ranged in size from minute fragments to bits as large as a 

 man's hand, and in some instances even larger. There were 

 many hundreds of these chips visible, scattered over an area 



Fig. 179.— Quartz implement, found by Mis.- F. E. Babbitt, 1878, at Little Falls. Minne- 

 sota, in modified drift, fifteen feet below surface, a, face view ; b, side view. (No. 

 31,316.) (Putnam.) 



the width of the wagon road, and ten or fifteen yards in length. 

 They were conspicuously unwaterworn, and likewise mostly 

 un weathered, though occasionally a bit was picked up having 

 some one of its surfaces weathered, while fractured or wrought 

 faces appearing upon other parts of it, looked as fresh as if the 

 work of yesterday. On the other hand, the mass of stone 

 rubbish upon and among which the quartzes were strewed is 

 much water-worn, many of the pieces being well rounded, while 

 none of them are wholly angular. 



" By continued observations at this locality. I found that 

 many of these quartz chips were brought to light at every suc- 

 ceeding freshet of the season, being washed out of the sand by 



