THE LIFE OF DEVTT;S T.AKE 9 



The Devils-Stump Lake complex occupies the southern part of 

 a drainage basin extending from the Turtle Mountains on the north 

 to the morainal mass of hills just south of Devils Lake, and with 

 poorly defined eastern and western boundaries. Its estimated area 

 is 9000 sq. km.* 



"There is a gradual slope throughout the basin southward to 

 these two lakes; the fall is so slight, however, and the surface so 

 irregular that the drainage is but very imperfectly developed. Small 

 lakes and ponds abound, especially in the southern portion. Coulees 

 are few and very shallow, rarely containing running water except 

 in wet seasons. Formerly these coulees and the chains of lakes 

 connected by them emptied considerable water into Devils Lake 

 through Mauvaise Coulee and by several converging coulees into 

 both the eastern and western arms of Stump Lake. Mauvaise 

 Coulee was the most important drainage line of the entire basin. 

 Its headwaters w^ere gathered beyond the international boundary 

 line and in its course southward it drained the Sweetwater chain of 

 lakes bj' Lake Irvine through which it passed, and entered Mauvais«= 

 (or Minnewaukan) Bay of Devils Lake as a large and permanent 

 stieam. Today no surface streams flow into either Devils Lake or 

 Stump Lake except very minor flows during spring thaws and after 

 excessive falls of rain. Both lakes, however, undoubtedly receive 

 the extensive underground seepage from the drift cover of the large 

 drainage basin, the waters of which move slowly down the slope 

 from the north over the impervious floor of Pierre shale and through 

 the lower sandy portions of the drift. Little of the surface drainage 

 of this inland basin ever reaches either of these lakes. In fact, but 

 a very small fraction, almost negligible, of the rain falling in the 

 basin reaches the lakes by running otf over the surface. The amount 

 that reaches the lakes and the Sheyenue River by underground seep- 

 age is no doubt greater, but this amount cannot satisfactorily be 

 estimated."* 



The history of Devils and Stump Lakes may be read in a 

 series of more or less well marked beaches parallelling their present 

 shores. There are two of these old shore lines that are well marked, 

 indicating the earlier levels, and several later ones which are only 

 occasionally distinct. The two former have been designated by 

 Simpson (1. c.) the A and B and the latter the C. D. and E. 

 beaches respectively. There is some evidence that after the ice had 

 left the basins of what are now Devils and Stmnp Lakes it ex- 

 tended an arm between them forming a dam to the waters of the 

 former. In this event the outlet must have been thru one of the 

 channels leading directly south from Devils Lake to the Sheyenne, 



•Chandler (1911) 



^Simijson, 1. c, pp. 10910. 



