614 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Natural drainage. 



SURFACE FEATURES. 



Natural drainage. Lac qui Parle county lies wholly within the basin 

 of the Minnesota river, which also includes nearly all of Big Stone county. 

 The only exception is an area equal to about one township at the north 

 side of this county, including the north part of Graceville, about the To- 

 kua lakes, and the adjoining northeast part of Tokua and northwest part 

 of T. 124, K. 45, which have a slight descent northward, sending their sur- 

 plus waters into lake Traverse and thence to Hudson bay by the Red river 

 of the North. 



The creeks of Big Stone county are small, and include four or five, varying from two to 

 four miles in length, tributary to Big Stone lake; Stony run, having an extent of about ten miles, 

 flowing southward and uniting with the Minnesota river some six miles below this lake; and Five 

 Mile creek in the southeast edge of the county, about two miles east from Correll station, flow- 

 ing into the east part of Marsh lake. Besides Big Stone and Marsh lakes on its boundary, this 

 county has numerous others, the largest of which is Artichoke lake, about five miles long and a 

 half mile to one mile wide, in the east part of Artichoke township. A narrower lake, about three 

 miles long, lies in the same township a mile farther west. More than fifty smaller lakes, ranging 

 in size from a quarter of a mile to one or two miles, appear on the map; these have not yet re- 

 ceived names, excepting the group of Tokua lakes, close southwest of Graceville, and the Tokua 

 Brothers lakes, six miles farther west. 



The Minnesota river receives three important tributaries in Lac qui Parle county, namely, 

 Whetstone, Yellow Bank and Lac qui Parle rivers. The first of these drains a considerable area 

 in Dakota, and joins the Minnesota river about a mile below Big Stone lake. Yellow Bank river, 

 so named from the color of its newly undermined banks of till, has the greater part of its basin 

 in Dakota, whence its north and south forks flow into Minnesota, and meet about five miles east 

 of the state line in Yellow Bank township, some seven or eight miles by the course of the river 

 from its mouth, which is ten miles below Big Stone lake. Lac qui Parle river joins the Minne- 

 sota about a mile below Lac qui Parle. Its basin reaches beyond this county west into Dakota, 

 and south across Yellow Medicine county and the northwest part of Lincoln, its remotest source 

 being a stream that flows into the west end of lake Hendricks, fifty miles southwest from its 

 mouth. The only noteworthy tributary to the Minnesota in this county below Lac qui Parle 

 river, is a creek three miles long, the outlet of a little lake, which, both lake and creek, are in the 

 township of Camp Belease. Ten Mile lake, which gives its name to the township next southwest, 

 is the only other lake that lies wholly in Lac qui Parle county. Salt lake, or lake Rosabel, a 

 beautiful expanse of clear but brackish water, some three miles long from east to west and about 

 a third of a mile wide, lies mostly in northwestern Mehurin, but its west part is crossed by the 

 state line. 



In a subsequent part of this chapter, relating to the glacial drift and the history qfr the ice 

 age, will be found descriptions of the Minnesota river, its remarkable valley and its lakes, Big 

 Stone, Marsh and Lac qui Parle. 



Topography. Both these counties have, through most of their extent, 

 a moderately undulating or rolling surface of unmodified glacial drift or 

 till. Any extensive view shows that the contour, as a whole, is approxi- 

 mately level; but it differs from a flat expanse in having everywhere small 

 and large swells or elevations, disposed without order or system, and rising 



