30 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



able breadth of country. This tendency to give off "stray" channels is character- 

 istic of numerous rivers throughout the northern and comparatively level Laurentiau 

 regions, but it is perhaps more strongly marked in the Nelson than in any other. In 

 the above section of this stream the straggling channels are of all sizes, from mere 

 brooks up to large rivers. * * * The general aspect of the country * * * is 

 even or slightly undulating, the highest points seldom rising more than 30 or 40 feet 

 above the general level. 



The countrv adjoining the lower part of this river, according- to the 

 same explorer, has a similar contom-, only moderately uneven; but the 

 channel of the river, excepting in the 10 miles next to its mouth, is deeply 

 eroded. Its inclosing bluffs vary in height from 100 to 200 feet between 

 Broad Rapid, where the river is approximately 125 feet above the sea, and 

 Gillams or Lower Seal Island, which is at the head of the tide, about 20 

 miles from Hudson Bay.^ 



COUNTRY BORDERING LAKE AGASSIZ ON THE EAST. 



Northern Jlinnesota, from Maple, Red, and Rainy lakes east to the 

 high northwestern shore of Lake Superior and south to Mille Lacs and the 

 Leaf Hills, varies in its average height from the highest level of Lake 

 Agassiz to 600 feet above it, or from 1,200 to 1,800 feet above the sea. It 

 is mostly a moderately rolling or hilly country, abounding with little lakes 

 which fill its depressions. The watershed dividing the basin of Lake 

 Agassiz from the basins of Lake Superior and the Mississippi culminates 

 northeastward in the Giants Range and the Mesabi Range, and southwest- 

 ward in the Leaf Hills. These ranges of hills rise several hundred feet 

 above the average height of the district. Excepting its western border 

 from near Maple Lake southward, where it is in large part prau-ie like the 

 adjacent Red River Valley, this district is covered with an almost unbroken 

 forest. Toward the east it forms a plateau, in part hilly and mountainous 

 and in part only moderately undulating or nearly flat, everywhere well 

 wooded and dotted with frequent small lakes, bordering the entire northern 

 shoi-e of Lake Superior, above which it rises 600 to 1,000 feet; and thence a 

 downward slope, characterized by the same general features, stretches west 



' Geol. Survej' of Canada, Reports of Progress for 1877 to 1879. 



