THE LEAF HILLS. 33 



drift deposits; but it appears to pass finally south of those ranges and to 

 reach the north shore of Lake Superior in the vicinity of Grand Portage. 



An approximate!}' parallel morainic belt, 12 to 25 miles distant to tlie 

 south and west, lies on the south side of Pokeg'ama and Leech lakes and 

 reaches west to Itasca Lake, where it bends to a northerly course. Its very 

 irregular hills and ridges rise 50 to 250 feet above the adjoining lakes and 

 streams. This l^elt, especially prominent at the head of the Mississippi 

 River, I have called the Itasca moraine.^ 



Leaf Hills. — From Itasca Lake and the White Earth Agency the 

 surface gradually falls southward to Detroit, 1,364 feet above the sea. 

 Thence a mean elevation of 1,350 to 1,400 feet extends south through 

 Ottertail and Douglas counties along the low plateau that forms the height 

 of land between the Red and Mississippi rivers, east of the south part of 

 Lake Agassiz. Upon this area, in southern Ottertail County, are the Leaf 

 Hills, whose highest portions rise 100 to 350 feet above the general level, 

 or 1,500 to 1,750 feet above the sea, being the most prominent morainic 

 accumulations found within the State of Minnesota. They reach in a 

 semicircle from Fergus Falls southeast to the south line of the county, and 

 thence east and northeast to East Leaf Lake, a total distance of 50 miles. 

 In the first 20 miles, or from Fergus Falls to the north side of Lake Chris- 

 tina, at the northwest corner of Douglas County, these morainic deposits 

 are divided into two or three belts of roughly hilly land, with intervening 

 areas of smoother contour. For the next 20 miles to the east and northeast 

 they form a range 5 to 3 miles wide, composed of very irregular, roughly 

 outlined hills, 100 to more than 300 feet high, widely known by the name 

 Leaf Mountains. Noi-theast of East Leaf Lake, where this moraine is 

 crossed by the road from Wadena to Ottertail Lake, its elevations rise 

 only about 100 feet and are named Leaf Hills, which seems *a more 

 appropriate title and should include the highest part of the range. The 

 common name has currency because they are the only hills in this part of 

 Minnesota that are conspicuously seen at any great distance. 



' Detailed descriptions of these and other moraines crossing the basin of Lake Agassiz are given 

 in Chapter IV. 



MON XXV 3 



