Douglass : A Geological Reconnaissance. 215 



the growing grain, almost like one vast field, is fringed, next to the 

 western sky, by the dark green of the woods which follow the course 

 of the Red River of the North. We are on the bed of the glacial 

 Lake Agassiz and in one of the richest grain-regions of the world. 



Along the Great Northern Railroad. 



If a more southerly course is taken through the lake-region in 

 Douglas and Otter Tail Counties, one passes through a tract of country 

 which has great charm and beauty. When one suddenly enters it 

 from the almost treeless plains to the westward, the change is especially 

 delightful. Here there is a varied assemblage of lakes, meadows, 

 forests, groves, marshes, hills, and brushland, all mingling in delight- 

 ful harmony and variety. Here the great ice-sheet deposited immense 

 quantities of debris irregularly over the country. This has been 

 covered over with a rich soil, and plants from north, east, south, and 

 west have mingled together giving variety and beauty to the vegeta- 

 tion. The cultivated hills, covered in summer with fields of wheat, 

 oats, and corn, help to reveal and increase the splendor of the scene ; 

 yet here Nature still holds much of her possession and defies the 

 transforming energies of man. There are bodies of water which he 

 cannot profitably drain, and swamps and marshes overgrown with 

 grasses, sedges, cat-tails, and rushes, where the mower and harvester 

 cannot be used. Many of the lakes are still fringed with deciduous 

 trees and there are wet lowlands still covered with forests. The bobo- 

 link and black-bird sing as they used to sing, and the musk-rat builds 

 his house as of old. 



Near the western portion of this region of glacial moraines is Fer- 

 gus Falls, which in summer is half hidden in trees. Westward the 

 timber is small and becomes less in quantity. The railroad-cuts show 

 that the deposits are composed to a great extent of gravel. The 

 hills fade away to the southward and westward ; soon the great 

 moraines are left behind, and we are gliding over the rich soil and level 

 country of the Valley of the Red River of the North, the southern 

 lobe of the glacial Lake Agassiz. 



Eastern North Dakota. 



Crossing the narrow river we travel for a considerable distance on 

 the level plain, which is nearly treeless, except where crossed by some 

 stream fringed with woods. Finally the land swells into faint undu- 



