394 ANNUAL REPORT. 



St. Vincent 758 ft., and Pipe Stone City 1577 ft., while along our 

 water courses we find the following altitudes: 



Winona 640 feet.. . 



Red Wing 665 " 



Hastings 670 " 



Stillwater 675 " 



St. Paul 676 " 



Minneapolis 791 " 



St. Cloud 953 " 



Brainerd 1200 " 



Moorhead 904 " 



Breckenridge 948 " 



Fergus Falls 1062 " 



Mankato 748 " 



New Ulm 837 " 



Among our prairie towns some of the highest points may be 

 found as follows: At the summit, between Hatfield and Pipe 

 Stone City, the highest point on the Southern Minnesota R. R,, 

 the altitude is 1744: ft. above the sea; Dodge Centre, on the 

 Winona & St. Peter R. R., is 1288 ft.; Bird Island, on the Has- 

 tings & Dakota R. R., 1089 ffc.; near Kandiyohi, on the southern 

 division of the Manitoba, 1255 ft.; mile post 138, on the St. Cloud 

 division, is 1403 ft.; Frazee City, on the Northern Pacific, east 

 of Brainerd and near the divide between the waters of the Missis- 

 sippi and Red Rivers, is 1431 ft.; while the Leaf Hills, a range "five 

 to three miles wide, composed of very irregular, roughly outlined 

 hills, 100 to 300 ft. high," stretching in a northwesterly direction 

 from the borders of Todd county, through Becker and Otter Tail 

 counties, and disappearing in the low range which merges into 

 the old raised beaches of the glacial Lake Agassiz, reach an al- 

 titude of 1750 ft. above the sea; while many of the summits of 

 these hills show elevations between 1500 ft. and that figure. 



Many towns and villages nestled in the valleys, along the streams 

 and beside the many lakes of this section of the state, often at an 

 elevation of 1,500 fieet and upwards, testify to the inviting salu- 

 brity of the crisp and bracing atmosphere. 



The highest part of the state is the Mesabi — the Chippewa word 

 for dividing ridge — the range of high land separating the waters of 

 the Rainy Lake River basin from those flowing east and south into 

 the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. 



The continental foldings of the earth's crust are not strongly 

 marked in Minnesota; there are no high ridges nor deep valleys, 

 such as are seen along the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the conti- 

 nent; nor has water, along the Mesabi, exercised that wonderful 



