34 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



The Leaf Hills are crossed northwest of Parkers Prairie by a road that 

 winds 3 or 4 miles among their knolls, hills, and short ridges, rising about 

 100 feet above the land on each side. Again, the road from Alexandria to 

 Clitherall crosses this range in the townshi]? of Leaf Mountain, the summit 

 of the road being near the south line of this township, about 1,525 feet 

 above the sea. The top of a hill a quarter of a mile east of the road 

 here, and about 125 feet higher, affords a fine view of these "mountains" 

 (PI. VIII), which westward and northeastward rise in most tumultuous 

 confusion 150 to 250 feet or more above the intervening depressions. 

 They are massive, though very irregular in contour, with steep slopes. 

 No prevailing trend is noticeable. Between them are inclosed frequent 

 lakes, which vary from a few rods to a mile in length, and one of the largest 

 lies at the northeast foot of this hill. The material is chiefly unmodified 

 drift, nearly like that which forms very extensive, gently undulating tracts 

 elsewhere. The principal difference is that rock fragments, large and 

 small, are generally much more numerous upon these hills, and occasionally 

 they occur in great abundance. 



South of the Leaf Hills the country adjoining Lake Agassiz is an 

 expanse of smoothly imdulating or rolling till, 1,200 to 1,075 feet above 

 the sea. So slight are its elevations and depressions, usually differing from 

 each other by 10 to 25 feet, that in an extensive prospect these inequalities 

 are lost sight of, and the land seems bounded by a level line at the horizon. 

 This contour extends south through Grant and Stevens counties, and thence 

 more than 100 miles southeast, descending on the average about a foot per 

 mile along the wide, slightly undulating basin of the Minnesota River, 

 which seems to be a continuation of the same topographic belt that forms 

 the Red River Valley. 



COUlS"TRY WEST OF LAKE AGASSIZ. 



Along the west side of the basins of the Minnesota River, of the Red 

 River Valley, and of Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegosis, the surface rises 

 from 200 or 300 to 1,000 feet above their slightly undulating or quite flat 

 belt of lowland. No other feature in the contour of the northwestern 

 States and adjoining British territory is more noteworthy, extended, and 



