The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-03-23
An Ancient People.

In 1875 Prof. Winchcl discovered at
Little Falls, Minnesota, 4 number Of quartz
chips which bore evidence of having been
cut from the parent rock by the hand of
man. lie therefore concluded that the
quartz workers inhabited this country be.
fore the mound builders race, as no found
these chips i'll strata underlying the mound
building period. lie also tiXcs the era of
tho quartz workers rs that ending with the
last glacial period. 1t is often disputed
however, whether these quartz remains be-
long 10 past glacial folk, or to co-glacial
lntcr-glacial or pre- glacial people, the qucs-
ton being difficult TO decide because the
remains found and noted by Prof. Winchcll,
which are surface deposits, are so scattered
and irregular. At Little Falls also, there
has been discovered quartz chips and i'm
plcmcnts occupying regular strata in the
earth. The remains consist Of hammers,
implements ETC., both finished and unfin-
ishcd, together with the chips struck off
from the articles in the process of manu-
facture. The material of which they are
composed is principally compact, lustrous
quartz, frequently motlled as if selected
with an eye to the artistic beauty The
stratum is some few inches in thickness.
and lies in the soil few feet below the sur
lace. The appearances Indicate that this
VAS once the site of manufactory of such
quartz objects, and this idea is upheld by
various considerations. There are tools
found such 90 would hc USED ii. the lnunu.
tacturc of quartz articles, and the Whole
stratum is mixed with quartz chips which
III many cases appear stuck in the dirt lust
as they fell from the land Of the unknown.
Unfinished implements are also found in
more or less advanced stages of mannfac-
turc. Ii is not possible to fix the precise
point occupied by these remains in the
scale of the glacial epoch, until the drift
features and surrounding formations of the
locality shall be better understood than now
Still it is certain that the remains belong to
Il pal,colthic people, that is, a people living
before the end Of the last glacial period,
because they are deposited in drift which
is known to be of glacial origin. The hard
pan upon which tho quartz formations lie
is probably of the first glacial period, and
the quartz may belong to an inter glacial
epoch. Prof. Winchcll somewhere records
the opinion that between the frs! and second
cpochs. a considerable interval OF time may
have elapsed, during which forests may have
fiourishcd not unlike those now in possession
of the soil. Should future rcscarchs cor
roborate this theory, it may be found that
the precise period in question is that in
which Little Falls quartz workers pcopled
that part of the Mississippi valley. Ap-
pcarances all indicate that these crude
quartz implements" were finally submerged
by flood, gentle i'll Its action, probably Of
long continuance and perhaps forcsccn by
the palmolithic men Interested The dis
position Of small, smooth, watcr-worn pch-
bles in the intcrsticcs of the stratum shows
this, as likewise does the fact that collec-
tions of implements of one sort are not un-
frequently met with, portion of which
will, perhaps, be unfinished and the re-
mainder completed. No such systematic
arrangement of material would, of course,
he possible had the quartz been strongly
agitated by ice orpowcrful currents