SECTION ACROSS THE COTEAU DES PRAIRIES. 37 



dricks into South Dakota, where it continues in the same course tlu-ough 

 Deuel and Grant counties and the Sisseton and] Wahpeton Indian Reserva- 

 tion. It tlnis reaches past the sources of the Big Sioux ^Iver, and farther 

 northward becomes the divide between the head streams of the Minnesota 

 and Wikl Rice rivers on the east and the James River on the west. This 

 elevated tract, extending 200 miles, was called by the earliest French 

 exj)lorers the Coteau des Prairies, meaning the Highland of the Prairies. 

 This name, according to Nicollet, alludes to its conspicuous appearance, 

 "looming as it were a distant shore," when viewed from the valleys of the 

 Minnesota and James rivers, as is very noticeable from the vicinity of Lakes 

 Traverse and Big Stone and from the highest points near the Minnesota 

 River for perhaps 20 miles below Big Stone Lake. Farther southeast this 

 title was ajjplied to the first prominent ascent above the broad, gently 

 undulating expanse that reaches everywhere 20 or 30 miles from the Min- 

 nesota River. 



In crossing the Coteau des Prairies from northeast to southwest there 

 is generally a very gradual, smooth slope, rising 100 to 300 feet in 5 to 15 

 miles. Then comes a steeper ascent, which amounts to 300 feet or more 

 within a width of 2 or 3 miles, coinciding through the greater part of its 

 extent with the tract of knolly and hill}" drift that forms the second or Gary 

 moraine. The average height beyond, sometimes after a slight descent, 

 continues to rise, but onh^ slowly, amounting to 100 or 150 feet in crossing 

 the smoother, undulating or rolling area, 5 to 15 miles wide, between this 

 and the outer morainic range, which next rises 100 to 200 or 300 feet within 

 2 or 3 miles and forms the crest of the highland along nearly its whole 

 extent. West of this moraine in Minnesota the surface soon drops 60 to 

 l>i0 feet, this descent being greatest at the south and diminishing north- 

 ward, and thence a smooth slope of till falls southwesterly some 200 feet 

 within 10 miles. Farther to the north, from Lake Hendricks nearly to 

 Goodwin, S. Dak., a gently undulating expanse of till, slightly lower than 

 this western belt of di'ift hills, extends from them westward, approximately 

 level, for a width of several miles, beyond which a similar slope falls to the 

 southwest. 



