GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 293 



covering. The pines with their dark-gTeen foliag-e and the gloomy 

 tamarack gradually disappear, and for some distance we pass through 

 groves of deciduous trees, chiefly oak, with some intenrdxture of elm 

 and ash. About the ninety filth meridian we emerge u[;on the open, 

 rolling prairies ; yet for some distance the rounded" hillocks are often 

 covered with open groves of oak, and the little intervening basins are 

 occupied by clear, limpid lakes, presenting a charming landscape. Here 

 jierhaps will be found some of the most beautiful spots in the State — 

 and by "here" I intend that strip running from Ked Lai^e south, includ- 

 ing Becker and Otter Tail counties and following the divide between 

 the basins — the green, grassy sward covering the gently-rounded knolKs 

 and gradual slopes and carpeting the surface amid the open oak-groves, 

 where the trees appear as regularly distanced as though they had. been 

 l^lanted by the hand of man. At the foot of almost every slope is 

 a beautiful, clear lakelet, filled with finny tribes. We could scarceij- 

 imagine a scene more charming. 



It is a singular fact that the entire surface of this western prairie- 

 divide, which separates the Upper Mississippi Basin from the valley of 

 Eed River and from the upper ])art of Minnesota River Valley, is dotted 

 with innumerable lakes of small size, many of which are without any 

 visible outlets. If we examine a good, late map of the State, made on 

 a scale of sufficient size, we shall find an immense circlet of these lakes 

 extending from Saint Paul northwest and then north and northeast, to the 

 source of the Mississippi, following-, as a general rule, the more elevated 

 portions of the country and the divides between tlie streams; it is said 

 that not less than ten thousan<l of these lakes are to be found in the 

 State. Why are these found so generally on the divides and the higher 

 ground? What connection is there between the two ? These are inter- 

 esting questions, to which I may hereafter recur eitheY in this or a future 

 report, for it is evident that the existence of these lakes in this position 

 has an im[)ort;mt bearing u[)on the hygrometric condition of the atmos- 

 phere and the amount of the rain-fall in this portion of the country. 



Continuing our course westward along the same line upon which we 

 originally started, we next i)ass down a gentle slope of some 400 fe(^t 

 descent into the broad valley of Red River. This valley, or rather 

 plain, for such it really is, extends northward from Lake Traverse to 

 Lake Winnipeg, having an average width of thirty or thirty five miles, 

 one uniform level scarcely interrupted by a swell or depression, save the 

 channels cut by the tributaries, which enter almost at regular intervals. 

 There is perhaps no place on the continent that so fully meets our idea 

 of a "flat"' or " dead-level" country as this valley. Professor Owen has 

 truly remarked that " nothing, however, but personal observation can 

 convey to the mind the singular effect produced by this dead-level 

 plain. The line of the horizon is so perfectly straight that it might 

 serve the purpose of astronomical observation for deternjining the alti- 

 tude of the heavenly bodies. While standing on this great savanna, 

 rtraining my eyes in quest of some object more prominent than a blade 

 of grass, it occurred to me that there is probably no spot on the globe 

 more suitable than this on which to measure a degree of latitude." It 

 is only personal observation that can convey to the mind the effect of 

 this singular feature; even the gentle sloi)es, which border it, ai)pear in 

 the distance as abrupt bluffs when we gaze at them across this level 

 surface. 



The Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, which runs diagonallv across it 

 for forty miles, during this distance is without a. curve, a fill, or a cut, 

 save what is necessary to remove the sod. It is one immense meadow^ 



