1884.] Vestiges of Glacial Man in Minnesota. 595 
to a narrow section of the Mississippi valley, stretching along the 
river a short distance from the central site of observation. 
The find reported by Professor Winchell consists of chipped 
objects of a class generally ascribed to what is called the rude 
stone age. Of these, many appear to be mere refuse, while others 
are regarded as finished, and unfinished implements. The Win- 
chell specimens have been assigned, upon geological grounds, to 
a prehistoric era altogether antedating that of the mound-building 
faces, and reaching back to a time when the drift material of the 
terrace-plain was just receiving its final superficial deposit. It is 
found that, at intervals, the surface soil of the terrace is permeated 
w these quartzes to a depth of not unfrequently three or four 
The lowest and newest formation at this place constitutes the 
actual flood-plain of the river. It is still in process of develop- 
ment, is of fluctuating width and thickness, and is, at certain 
points, yet subject to partial overflow at periods of exceptionally 
high water. In that portion of the township of Little Falls sit- 
tiated east of the Mississippi, this bottom land is limited on the 
tast by a higher ancient river terrace, which has, at the head of 
the rapid called Little Falls, an average elevation above the river 
of about twenty-five feet, with a width of a mile or more. 
This older terrace, like the present flood-plain, is of undoubted 
drift origin, and has been spread out by the immediate action of 
Mr; Warren Upham, assistant on the State geological 
“utvey, tells us that it consists of stratified gravel and sand; that 
it forms a part of the modified drift, deposited at the close of the 
Sst glacial epoch of the great ice age, by the floods descending 
ong this valley from the melting and retreating ice-sheet ; and 
i it was derived from the drift material which had been con- 
tained in the lower portion of the ice. It belongs to the great 
> of river-terraces, extending from an indefinite beginning on 
north, to the embouchure of the Mississippi on the south. 
tiiir from any cause the lower plain, or bottom-land, does 
pi the edge of the upper plain becomes, of course, the 
| Never of the river; at places where, on the other hand, the 
: is deposits appear in force, the ancient terrace-banks either 
. Send to the, upon them in a pronounced line of steeps, or de- 
ety em by gentle slopes. 
“per terrace of the Mississippi valley is, at Little F alls, 
POs hs, v1. ” 
