32 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



These ranges of hills cross the international boundary respectively 

 about 90 and 120 miles east of Rainy Lake, which, as before stated, was 

 the extreme eastern arm of the glacial Lake Agassiz at its highest stage, 

 unless that area was still ice-covered; and their western poi-tions are 

 respectively 65 and 75 miles south-southeast of the east end of Rainy Lake. 

 They coincide nearly with the line of watershed dividing the basin of 

 Rainy Lake and River from that of Lake Superior; but this watershed 

 takes a less direct course, winding its way circuitously over this generally 

 uneven and hilly region. On the international boundary the belt between 

 the Giants and Mesabi ranges is drained partly through the former to Rainy 

 Lake and partly through the latter to Lake Superior; and tlie Embarras 

 River, which sends its waters to the St. Louis River and Lake Superior, has 

 its source north of the northei'u range. 



About Vermilion Lake and the ujDper EmbaiTas River the average 

 height of the country is 1,500 to 1,600 feet. Thence the surface falls 

 slowly westward to the vicinity of Pokegama Falls, Lake Winnebagoshish, 

 and Leech and Cass lakes, where the mean elevation is from 1,300 to 1,400 

 feet. Still farther west it rises to 1,500 and 1,600 feet about Lake Itasca 

 and the White Earth Agency. The hills of these areas consist of morainic 

 accumulations of glacial drift, and are not so high and massive as the 

 Giants and Mesabi ranges, which, near the international boundary and Avest 

 to the EmbaiTas River, are mostly projecting knobs and ridges of the bed- 

 rock. 



Mesabi and Itasca moraines. — Drift hills and short ridges, haN-ing 

 heights from 50 to 200 feet or more, extend in an approximately east to 

 west belt, to which I have applied the name Mesabi moraine, from the lakes 

 of the Embarras River to Deer and Bowstring lakes and the northeast side 

 of Lake Winnebagoshish. Its continuation northwestward probably passes 

 to the prominent terminal moraine, 100 to 200 feet high, between the north 

 and south portions of Red Lake, east of the Narrows. Eastward from the 

 EmbaiTas River, this morainic belt coincides in part with the Giants and 

 Mesabi ranges for a considerable distance, so that the elevations of rock 

 forming those heights are overspread and sometimes concealed by morainic 



