.)()(; THK GbXDLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[ I-)cs Moines river. I l<rv;ii>un^. 



the rolling surface on either side. At the northeast corner of this township is the great bend 

 of the Des Moiues. Here it enters a valley transverse to its course through the last eight miles, 

 and is carried in it thence to the southeast. This valley has a nearly flat alluvial bottomland, a 

 third to a half of a mile wide, enclosed by bli.ffs 50 to 60 feet high. It continues two or three 

 miles northerly from the great bend, with the same width and depth; and is less distinctly marked 

 three or four miles farther, along the upper part of Harvey creek to lake Augusta. The excava- 

 tion of this channel was probably effected by floods discharged from glacial melting, while the 

 receding ice-sheet still covered these counties farther east. In the central part of Great Bend 

 township the river is bordered on the west by morainic knolls and small ridges of rocky till, which 

 rise successively one above another to the top of the Blue mounds, one to one and a half miles 

 distant; and in the vicinity of Windom the ascent from the river eastward has a similar contour. 



Through Jackson county the valley of the Des Moines is 100 to 150 feet below the average 

 hight on each side, and is from one-third to two-thirds of a mile wide between the tops of its 

 bluffs, which in the north part of the county rise in knolly and irregular slopes of morainic drift. 

 but at Jackson and southward have generally the nearly straight course and steep ascent charac- 

 teristic of ordinary fluvial erosion. At Jackson the immediate river-bluffs are about 100 feet 

 high, but there is a further rise of the moderately undulating expanse of till on each side, amount- 

 ing to 50 or 75 feet within a mile or less from the top of the bluffs. This town is built on four 

 terraces of modified drift, successively about 20, 30, 40 and 50 feet above the river, together 

 occupying a width of one-fourth to one-third of a mile. They are mostly composed of sand and 

 gravel for several feet next below the soil; but in some places the underlying till reaches quite to 

 the surface. 



Distances along the Des Moines river, measured in direct lines between its principal 

 bends, are as follows: from its source to the foot of lake Shetek (this portion being commonly 

 called Beaver creek), 24 miles; to a point on the south line of Cottonwood county, two miles north 

 of the north end of Heron lake, 48 miles; to its great bend, 56 miles; to Windom, 63 miles: to 

 Jackson, 81 miles; to the state line, 91 miles; and to its mouth at Keokuk. about 385 miles. Thus 

 a little less than one-fourth of its entire length lies in Minnesota. 



Elevations, Saint Paul & Sioux City division, Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis d- Omaha railway. 

 From profiles in the office of T. P. Gere, superintendent, Saint Paul. 



.Miles from Feet above 

 St. Paul. the sea. 



Mountain Lake, depot 137.0 1300 



Bingham Lake, depot 143.2 1420 



Summit, grade 144.1 143V 



Windom 147.8 1353 



Des Moines river, water 148.1 1331 



Bluff siding 149.7 1425 



Wilder - .....154.0 1448 



Heron lake, water. .."! 159.0-159.5 1403 



Heron Lake, depot 160.3 1417 



' Elevations, Southern Minnesota division, Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul railti-u//. 

 From George B. Woodworth, assistant engineer. La Crosse. 



Miles from Feet above 

 La Croase. the sea. 



Top of bluff at junction of branch to Jackson depot 209.1 1446 



Des Moines river, water 211.8 1288 



Des Moines river, bridge 211.8 1353 



Summit, grade 216.6 1517 



Lakefleld 220.6 1463 



Okabena 229.1 1410 



Crossing Saint Paul & Sioux City railroad 232.2 1414 



The highest portions of Cottonwood county, about 1500 feet above the 

 sea, are in Rose Hill, township, in western Aino. and the plateau upon the 



