290 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



Stations. 



Moiiili of Nanicukan River 



Gniiid Falls Portage 



Lake Nanit'ukaii 



Rainy Lake. 



Mauitiiii Ra))i(ls 



Lake of the Woods 



ALONG WINNIPEG 1?IVEK TO LAKE WINNIPEG 



Grande Ddcharge 



Do 1 1 1 e Portage ., . 



Roche Briilce Portage .'. 



Otter Falls 



Bonnet Lake , 



Big Bonnet Portage 



Fort Alexander 



Lake Winnipeg 



I regret that this line cannot be extended eastward direct from Rniny 

 Lake to Lake Superior ; bat I Lave been nnable to find any record, if 

 one was ever made. Yet from this list, imperfect as it is, we learn some 

 important facts, among- which the following may be mentioned as of 

 special interest in the present examination : That the divide between 

 Lake Superior and Kainy Lake, which here is directed northeast, main- 

 tains an elevation equal to that immediately west of Duluth. It is 

 true that, at the point where Mr. Hind struck the channel, the elevation 

 was a little less than that immediately back of Duluth, but the rest of 

 the table as given in bis work, but not quoted here, shows that at a 

 short distance northeast of that point the altitude is 1,300 to 1,400 feet 

 above the sea. And, as Owen asserts in bis Geological Survey of Wis- 

 consin, Iowa, and Minnesota, the bordering rim of the immediate Lake 

 Superior Basin increases in height toward the northeast. 



A second fact we learn from this list is that the slope of the Winni- 

 peg Basin along this line is tolerably rapid toward the northwest, reach- 

 ing at Lake Winnipeg a level only 28 feet above that of Lake Superior. 

 It shows also that Kainy Lake is fully 600 feet lower than the extreme 

 source of the Mississippi and the Lake of the Woods 700 feet lower. 



The elevation of Red Lake may have been ascertained, but if it has 

 I have been unable to find the record ; yet I think we have good reason 

 to infer that it is less than that given for the source of the Mississippi. 

 It is drained into Red River at a point where the elevation is only jjbout 

 850 feet above the sea; the length of Red * Lake River, by which its 

 waters are carried oft", is probably not more than one hundred miles, 

 twenty-five or thirty of which are through the remarkably flat valley 

 of Red River, and, so far as I can learn, the rest is without any con- 

 siderable falls. I allude thus particularly to the elevation of this lake 

 as it will assist us in deternjining the height of the rim of the Missis- 

 sippi Basin on the northwest, and the character of the descent to the 

 Red River Basin in that direction. By bringing together these facts we 

 are enabled to form a tolerably correct idea of the configuration and ele- 

 vation of the northern, northeastern, and northwestern boundary of 

 the plateau of the Upper Mississippi Basin. 



The line of the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad to Breckenridge, 



