WATONWAN AND MARTIN COUNTIES. 473 



Natural drainage.] 



river, above its mouth. Antrim, the most southeast township of this county, 

 is drained by Perch creek, which has its source a few miles farther south 

 in Martin county, and flows northeast to the Watonwan river. 



Among the lakes of Watonwan county the following are worthy of mention: Emerson lake, 

 at the nortli side of Madelia, two miles long from east to west and one and a half miles wide, 

 with about half its area in Linden, Brown county; five or six smaller lakes in Madelia, within a 

 few miles to the southeast from Emerson lake; a dozer: smaller lakes, probably some of them dry 

 in the summer, lying in Fielden and Antrim; thiee lakes in Saint James, the largest, a mile or 

 more in length, close southwest of the town; Long lake, two and a half miles long from east to 

 west and half a mile wide, and Kansas lake, of equal width and a mile in length, in Long Lake 

 township; four unnamed lakes in Odin, the largest, in sections 5 and 6, being about a mile lone: 

 and a half mile wide; and Wood lake in Adrian, two and a half miles long and from a quarter 

 to a half of a mile wide. 



The greater part of Martin county is also included within the basin of 

 the Blue Earth river, to which its waters are carried by Elm, Center and 

 South creeks, all of which join the Blue Earth in Verona, Faribault county. 

 Elm creek, the largest of these, and the only one which rises beyond the 

 west line of this county, has been sometimes called Chain river; deriving 

 its name from the remarkable chains of lakes which find their outlets by 

 these creeks. The southeast corner of Martin county is tributary to the 

 Blue Earth river by smaller creeks above the foregoing; and the north edge 

 of the county sends its streams to the Watonwan river. 



An area of about a hundred and fifty square miles in the southwest 

 part of Martin county lies in the basin of the Des Moines and is drained by 

 the head-stream ot the East fork of this river, which has its farthest source 

 nearly at the middle of the line between this and Jackson county and 

 thence flows southeastward, passing through Tuttle's lake upon the state 

 line. 



The lakes of this county, mostly lying in three distinct chains or series, present very inter- 

 esting features, and seem to give important evidence respecting the history of the glacial period. 

 On this account further notice of them is deferred to the later part of this chapter where the drift 

 is described. 



Topography. Watonwan county descends toward the east and north- 

 east, but in a broad view its slightly undulating expanse seems nearly level. 

 Generally its surface is in very gentle slopes which soon conduct the sur- 

 plus waters of rains and snow-melting into depressions, which merge into 

 ravines and lead to small water-courses, and by them to the larger per- 

 manent streams. Here and there, however, are depressions which have no 

 such free drainage, and contain sloughs or lakes. 



