\VATOX\VAX AXI) MAKTIX COUNTIES. 



Chains of lakes. J 



the ice moved, finds illustration in Watonwan county by the lakes of Ma- 

 delia, Fielden, Long Lake and Adrian. Here the glacial current passed 

 southeastward, this region being near the axis of the great lobe of the con- 

 tinental glacier which stretched from the Leaf hills and the Head ot the 

 Coteau des Prairies southeast and then south to the center of Iowa. 



Martin count}' presents, however, in its three remarkable chains or 

 series of lakes, a problem which the foregoing general explanations of the 

 origin of lakes upon areas of glacial drift do not solve, though they are 

 needed to prepare us for its consideration. These series are known as the 

 East. Central and West chains of lakes.. 



South creek receives the outflow from the East chain of lakes, and connects them by a 

 stream which descends toward the north. This chain extends from the Iowa line about twelve 

 miles northerly in a somewhat irregular course, lying upon tiie line between East Chain and Sil- 

 ver Lake townships, and continuing northward through the east part of Fairmont and the north- 

 west corner of Pleasant Prairie. It includes two lakes in section 36, Silver Lake; two lakes at the 

 west side of sections 19 and 18, East Chain, now united under the name of East Chain lake by a 

 dam which has a fall or head of eight feet; two unnamed lakes in sections 7 and 6, East Chain; an- 

 other, about a mile long, lying principally in section 36, Fairmont; Rose lake, a mile and a half 

 long from south to north, at the west side of sections 25 and 24, Fairmont; lake Imogene, on the 

 township line, about one and a half miles northeast from the last; and Lone Tree lake, lying a 

 mile farther northeast and reaching about a mile in length from south to north, at the east side 

 of section 6. Pleasant Prairie, and of section 31, Center Creek. These lakes are bordered by 

 rolling areas of till, thirty to forty feet above them, to which elevation their shores ascend mostly 

 by quite steep slopes. The east bank of East Chain lake, two miles in length, has been recently 

 undermined along the greater part of the first mile from its north end. In width the lakes of 

 this chain vary from one-fourth to two-thirds of a mile. The spaces between them are some- 

 times marsh and as wide as the narrower parts of the lakes, but in some other portions is a con- 

 tracted channel, such as might have been cut by the stream which outflows from them. Thus 

 the series does not occupy depressions in any well-marked continuous valley. Another lake lies 

 close beside this series in section 12, of Silver Lake township, but divided from it by a portion'of 

 the till thirty to forty feet high, through which it has no outlet. The fall of South creek through 

 this chain of lakes in the distance of about nine miles from the Iowa line to the mouth of Rose 

 lake, whence it turns northeastward, is about flfteen feet, half of this being at the East Chain dam. 



The Central chain includes about twenty lakes, and extends twenty-two miles in almost 

 perfectly straight due north course from Iowa lake, crossed by the state line, to Perch lake at the 

 head of Perch creek, three miles south of the line of Watonwan county. This series of lakes lies 

 three to six miles west of the East chain, being in the west part of Silver lake, Fairmont, Rut- 

 land and Westford, which form range SO in this county. Their outlets are South, Center, Elm 

 and Perch creeks. In their order from south to north, the lakes of this Central chain are Iowa 

 lake, two and a half miles long from northwest to southeast, and from a quarter of a mile to one 

 mile wide; Silver lake, close north of the last, one mile long and a half mile wide, lying at the 

 east side of section 30 of the township to which it gives its name; Summit lake, beginning about 

 an eighth of a mile north of the last, and extending a mileat the east side of section 19; Wilnmnt 

 lake, a mile long and two-thirds of a mile wide, lying mostly in section 7; Bard well lake, begin- 

 ning about three-fourths of a mile north of the last and reaching thence a mile to the north with 

 a width of about a quarter of a mile, mostly in section 31, Fairmont; Mud lake, of small size; 

 Amber lake, shorter but wider than Bardwell lake, in the east part of section 30; Hall's lake, 

 mostly in sections 19 and 20, one and a quarter miles long from south to north and from a half 

 to three-fourths of a mile wide; Budd's lake, extending about a half mile in both length and 

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