MURRAY AND NOBLES COUNTIES. 521 



Topography.] 



area in Leeds, extending six miles east from the main course of the series, 

 and surrounded on the south, east and north by a lower expanse of smooth, 

 slightly undulating till, may be a medial branch. The material of this 

 roughly hilly belt is till, but it differs from that of the gently undulating 

 region through which it lies in containing, and being overstrown with, 

 abundant boulders and pebbles, principally of granite, syenite, gneiss and 

 schists, but also including many of limestone. Many of the hollows en- 

 closed among these knolls and ridges are bowl-shaped or of irregular form, 

 without outlet, and occasionally contain sloughs and lakelets. 



Moulton, the most southwest township of Murray county, and the west edge of Chanaram- 

 bie, lie on the west side of this moraine, and have the smooth, massively rolling surface which 

 prevails in the west part of Nobles county, the higher portions of this tract being 50 or 75 feet 

 above the water-courses and twice this amount below Buffalo ridge. 



Eight miles northeast from the outer morainic belt, in sections 8 and 5, Mason, is a remarka- 

 ble plateau of till, with its top nearly level and covering one and a half square miles, from which 

 there is a descent of about 200 ft-et in three miles east to Lake Shetek, and about 1 00 feet in the 

 same distance west to Bear lakes. Smooth, prolonged slopes descend from this highland on all 

 sides; and, with the exception of this area, a gently undulating and often nearly flat belt of till, 

 increasing from ten to twenty miles in width, extends from northwest to southeast through the 

 central part of Murray county. Beaver creek crosses this area in a channel usually 20 to 40 feet 

 below the general surface, and the frequent lakes and sloughs lie 15 to 25 feet below the average 

 hight of their vicinity. Avoca and Fulda are situated upon this slightly undulating, approxi- 

 mately flat expanse, with no hills nr notable elevations within view, excepting the morainic hills 

 in Leeds, distant ten to fifteen miles westward. Though this region appears to be level, its sur- 

 face has a somewhat uniformly descending slope of eight or ten feet to the mile from west to east, 

 as shown by railroad surveys. In the distance of about twelve miles from Avoca southeast to 

 Dundee, the descent is 90 feet ; and in nine and a half miles easterly from lona to Fulda the 

 descent is 100 feet, the latter town being 62 feet above De Forest, and 105 feet above the surface 

 of Heron lake, situated respectively six and a half and fifteen miles farther southeast. The Des 

 Moines river, flowing along the east side of this area, has excavated a valley about 75 feet deep, 

 and from a quarter of a mile to one mile wide, to which the descent is mostly by moderate slopes. 



In northeastern Murray county the second morainic belt, two to four 

 miles wide, constituting the northeastern border of the Coteau des Prairies 

 extends from lake Eliza northwest by Star, Duck and Buffalo lakes and the 

 northeast side of lake Shetek, occupying the northeast part of Des Moines 

 River township, southwestern Dovray, northeastern Murray, the southwest 

 half of Shetek, and the northeast part of Lake Sarah. It is distinguished 

 from the slightly undulating areas of till at each side by its more frequent 

 boulders and its more rolling and occasionally hilly contour; but it scarcely 

 anywhere exhibits the rough surface which characterizes the greater part 

 of this series of drift accumulations. The summits of its swells are 30 to 

 40 feet above the intervening depressions, sloughs and lakes; nearly the 



