WINONA COUNTY. 243 



Elevations.] 



The terrace rises fifty-eight feet above the flood-plain of the Rolling- 

 stone, on section 10, near Minnesota City. 



The bluffs at Stockton rise 345 feet above the depot at the same place. 



The high plateaux between Stockton and Winona rise 456 feet above 

 the upper terrace of the Mississippi in the valley of the Rollingstone at 

 Minnesota City, 525 feet above the lower flat at Minnesota City, and 538 

 feet above the Milwaukee depot at Winona. This depot is really on the 

 same gravelly plain as the lower flat, above, at Minnesota City, but descend- 

 ing a little toward Winona, and depressed for Winona lake. This makes 

 the highest portions of the bluffs back of Winona about 1200 feet above 

 the sea. This hight is reached some distance back from the immediate 

 brink of the bluff, and in some cases from a half to three-fourths of a mile. 



Back of Homer the average elevation of the uplands is about 1232 feet 

 above tide. This is reached at a distance of a couple of miles from the 

 bluff brink. In general, along the Mississippi, the 1200 feet contour-line 

 runs some miles back from the brink in the uplands, the brink itself being 

 about 1100 feet. 



The high prairie about Pickwick is 515 feet above the station at 

 Lamoille, or 1167 feet above the ocean. 



Gwinn's bluff, sec. 26, Richmond, rises 1176 feet above the ocean, the 

 limerock on the top composing 110 feet, and the St. Croix sandrock400 feet 

 down to the level of the railroad at Richmond. This is a narrow and pre- 

 cipitous bluff standing near the river, with a valley behind it that sets it 

 off from the rest of the high land in the same bold manner as the Great 

 Palisades on the north shore of lake Superior. This gives it the appear- 

 ance, as it has the reputation, of being the highest on the river. As it is on 

 the great anticlinal of the formations, this is very likely to be true, but it is 

 of about the hight of the surrounding country, except on the east side of the 

 Mississippi, where there is a broad expanse destitute of the limerock, and 

 therefore much lower, the sandrock itself also being reduced so as to bring 

 the general level but 100 or 200 feet above the river. On this expanse, in 

 high wind, the sand and dust rise in clouds three or four hundred feet in 

 the air. This area of broken down limerock, where the St. Croix sandrock 

 only forms the surface formation, is crossed by the valley of Black river, and 

 extends farthest in a north-northeast direction, the limerock appearing oc- 



