Early Man in Minnesota. — Holmes. 221 
plain was spread out by that flood-stage of the Mississippi river that 
existed during the prevalence of the ice period, or resulted from the 
dissolution of the glacial winter. The fortunate juxtaposition of 
these two classes of human remains enables us to establish this im- 
portant general truth."* 
My own observations confirm, in ever}- respect, those of pro- 
fessor Winchell, but the examination of other groups of related 
phenomena makes it necessary to revise his inferences and con- 
clusions. Finding relics of art deeply imbedded in the loam 
capping the terrace, he inferred that the site was occupied by 
men during the closing episodes of the glacial period, and coup- 
ling this idea with the fact that thb shaped relics were all ex- 
tremely rude he further inferred that the culture of that time 
must have been paleolithic. My investigations have shown, how- " 
ever, that the flaked quartzes were probably not originally in- 
cluded in the loam but rather that they were introduced into it in 
post-glacial times, and that they were rude because mere shop 
refuse, the period of occupation thus, in all probabilit}', corre- 
sponding to that of our historic aborigines. In these views pro- 
fessor Winchell now fully acquiesces. 
Several years later Miss Babbitt engaged in investigations at 
this place. Finding numerous flaked quartzes outcropping along 
the terrace front near the base, she assumed that the deposit was 
interbedded with the gravels at this level and inferred that man 
must have occupied the site early in the gravel forming epoch. 
Being unable to explain the fact that the flaked objects were 
all of rude types without supposing an exclusively rude state of 
art, she was led to assign them to a paleolithic culture. My re- 
searches make it plain, however, that the original observations 
were vitally defective and that the inferences and conclusions are 
wholly unsupported. 
Miss Babbitt was a teacher, resident temporarily in Little Falls, 
and devoted much attention to the collection of archeologic data. 
Her first report upon the finds of flaked quartz was read before 
the Minnesota Historical Society in 1880, but nothing s(!ems_ to 
have been printed at that time. A fuller account was presented 
at the meeting of the American Association in Minneapolis in 
1883, an abstract appearing in the proceedings. In the Ameri- 
can Naturalist for 1884tan extended paper was given embod}'- 
*Ibid. p. .50. 
fFranc E. Babbitt. Vestiges of Glacial 3[an in ]\riiinesotn. Ameri- 
can Naturalist, Vol. xviii, p. 504. 
