NORTHWARD DESCENT OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY. 25 



45 miles, and its limits ou each side are a slightly hig-her ai-ea of more 

 rolling contour. On the latitude of jMoorhead and Fargo its width is about 

 40 miles, and it is bordered by prominent highlands which rise 200 to 300 

 feet above this broad valley. On the latitude of Grand Forks its width is 

 nearly 50 miles, and it is bordered on the east by land that rises slowly 200 

 to 300 feet above the plain, while on the west the surface rises by moderate 

 slopes to a height of 600 to 700 feet. Where it is crossed by the interna- 

 tional boundary the width of this plain is 48 miles, its limit on the east 

 being a slightly liigher and more undulating wooded region, while on the 

 west it is a conspicuous terrace-like ascent of several hunch-ed feet. On 

 the average, for its extent within the United States, about one-third of the 

 width of the Red River Valley is in Minnesota and two-thirds in North 

 Dakota. 



The northward slope of the lowest part of the Red River Valley, 

 along the course of the Bois des Sioux and Red ri^'ers, from Lake Tra\'- 

 erse, 970 feet, to Lake Winnipeg, 710 feet above the sea, may thus be 

 said to be 260 feet in a distance of 320 miles, averaging about 10 inches 

 per mile. The valley proper, however, does not take on its distinctive 

 character in the first 10 or 15 miles of the com-se of the Bois des Sioux 

 River, but 10 miles farther east in Minnesota the same topographic features 

 that mark the Red River Valley continue south nearly to the latitude of 

 the southwest end of Lake Traverse. The elevatioii of this southern 

 extremity of the area of Lake Agassiz is 1,050 feet above the sea, being 

 90 feet above the surtace at Breckenridge and Wahpeton, 43 miles distant 

 to the north, so that this part of the ^s-alley jdain has a northward descent 

 of 2 feet per mile. Thence to Moorhead and Fargo the descent is li feet 

 per mile; next, for 75 miles to Grand Forks, it averag-es almost exactly 1 

 foot jier mile; and in the 74 miles from Grand Forks to the international 

 boundary this axial lowest portion of the vallev falls about 40 feet, or a 

 little more than 6 inches })er mile. In the 60 miles thence to Winnipeg the 

 descent is about 35 feet, or 7 inches per mile, the surface there being 45 

 feet above Lake Winnipeg, about 35 miles distant. 



