Upham.] 440 [Dec. 21, 



found that, at intervals, the surface soil of the terrace contains these 

 quartzes to a depth of, not unfreqnently, three or four feet. 



"The lowest and newest formation at this place is the present flood-plain 

 of the river. It is still in process of deposition, being yet subject to par- 

 tial overflows at periods of exceptionally high water. In that portion of 

 the town of Little Falls situated east of the Mississippi, this bottom- 

 land is limited on the east by a high ancient river-terrace, which has here 



an average elevation of about 25 feet above the river 



This older terrace, like the present flood-plain, has been spread out by 

 the immediate action of water. .... While occupied in examining 

 the river bank at Little Falls in quest of wrought quartzes, one day dur- 

 ing the season of 1879, 1 had occasion to ascend a slope lying between the 

 new flood-plain and the older terrace, by a pathjeacling through a sort of 

 gap or notch in the latter (310 rods, very nearly, or almost one mile north 

 of the east-west road by Vasaly's hotel; 10 rods west of the road to 



Belle Prairie; and 38 rods from the river) It seemed that at 



some past period a cut had been effected here by drainage, and that 

 the washout thus formed had afterward been deepened by being used 

 now and then as a wagon track. In this notch I discovered the soil to 

 be thickly strewn with pieces of sharp, opaque quartz. These were com- 

 monly 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 the width 

 of the wagon road, and ten or fifteen yards in length. They were con- 

 spicuously unwaterworn, and likewise mostly unweathered, though occa- 

 sionally 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 strewn 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 succeeding freshet of the sea- 

 son, being washed out of the sand by descending drainage. Their im- 

 mense and continually increasing numbers seemed to warrant the belief 

 that they had resulted from systematic operations of some sort, once con- 

 ducted, for unknown purposes, upon this particular spot. A portion of 

 the studied specimens subsequently yielded evidence of having received 

 shape from human hands, and therefore it was assumed provisionally that 

 the site of exposure represented a prehistoric workshop. 



"Prolonged investigation ensued ; and investigation established the hith- 

 erto unsuspected fact that no quartz chips nor fragments were enclosed 

 in the upper part of the gravel and sand terrace at the notch, nor within 

 a considerable distance at either hand, though they were sought with 

 careful scrutiny. . . . Ultimately it was ascertained that the notch 

 quartzes had dropped to the level at which they were seen from a thin 

 layer of them once lying from ten inches to two feet above it, and subse- 



