GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



Surface configuration.] 



Throughout northern Minnesota west of Vermilion lake, extending as far 

 south as the sources of the Big Fork and of Red Lake river, and along 

 the western boundary to Yellow Medicine county, the country is generally 

 flat, like that which is known as the Red river valley; this is termi- 

 nated by the Coteau des Prairies, which introduces a change of level 

 amounting to 400-500 feet within a few miles, though the surface contour 

 becomes nearly as uniform again after passing the hights of the Coteau. 



East of the Coteau, after a rather abrupt descent of 300-400 feet, the flats 

 of the Minnesota valley are reached. These flats are about one hundred 

 miles wide, and include the counties of Lac qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, 

 Redwood, Brown, Watonwan, Martin, Blue Earth and Faribault on the south 

 side; and Nicollet, Sibley, Carver, McLeod, Renville, Kandiyohi, Chippewa, 

 Swift, Big Stone, Traverse, Stevens and Grant, on the north side of the Min- 

 nesota river. Several other counties adjoining these are nearly equally flat, 

 but they are on the drainage slopes to the Mississippi or the Red river of the 

 North. The counties of Mower, Dodge, Steele and Waseca, with much 

 of Freeborn and Le Sueur, are also flat. 



The region of the upper Mississippi, above the mouth of the Minnesota 

 river, has in general a much more diversified surface than the valley of the 

 Minnesota. It is marked by numerous low, hill-ranges, and isolated or clus- 

 tered knobs, consisting of drift, usually till, which give rise to numerous 

 lakes and springs. A conspicuous range, known as the Leaf mountains, 

 rises in Otter Tail and Douglas counties, and extending southeasterly, sinks 

 away in northern Kandiyohi and Meeker counties; but is re-enforced by a 

 branch coming from the north through Todd, Stearns, and Wright counties. 

 It extends through Hennepin, western Dakota, western Rice, Steele and 

 Freeborn counties into the state of Iowa, where it is believed to swing round 

 to the west, returning thence northward upon the Coteau des Prairies, which 

 crosses Nobles, Murray, Pipestone and Lincoln counties. Toward the north 

 from Otter Tail county it produces a belt of rolling land through Becker and 

 southern Beltrami and Itasca counties, where it embraces the ultimate 

 sources of the great rivers of the state and of the continent; and in the 

 central portion of St. Louis county blends with the Mesabi range, which, 

 partly as a drift moraine and partly as a range of rock-formed hills, extends 

 to the eastern extremity of the state near Pigeon point. 



