BOUNDARY BETWEEN FOREST AND TRAIRIE. 45 



and prairie (see PI. XXXVIII, Chapter XI), having an ahnost wholly tim- 

 bered region on its northeast side, and a regioii on its southwest side that 

 is chiefly grass land, without trees or shrubs, excepting in narrow belts 

 along- the streams and occasional groves beside lakes, runs as follows: From 

 near the junction of the South and North Saskatchewan rivers it passes 

 southeasterly by the sources of the Red Deer and Assiniboine risers and 

 over the southwestern slopes of Duck and Riding mountains to the south 

 end of Lakes Manitoba and Winnipeg. Thence it turns southward and 

 holds this course along the east side of the Red River and approximately 

 parallel with it, at a distance increasing from 15 to 50 miles from the river 

 for about 300 miles to the upper part of this stream, where it flows from 

 east to west. It enters the United States about 15 miles east of Emerson 

 and St. Vincent and extends south-southeastward to the mouth of Thief 

 River, the sources of Poplar and Sand Hill rivers, and the White Earth 

 Agency, being at the last-named locality^ some 50 miles distant from the 

 Red River. Its course continues to the south by Detroit and Pelican Ra|)ids 

 to Fergus Falls, where it crosses the Red River, and thence it. runs south 

 east and east through the central part of the south half of Minnesota. 



Groves border the greater part of Lakes Big Stone and Traverse, and 

 cover the islands of Big Stone Lake. But considerable portions of the 

 shores and blufl^s of these lakes and the islands of Lake Traverse are 

 destitute of timber, or bear only bushes and small trees. The Bois des 

 Sioux River has no timber along the upper two-thirds of its course, but 

 below is fringed here and there by woods, from which it derives its name. 

 The Mustinka River, flowing into the north end of Lake Traverse; Rabbit 

 River, tributary to the Bois des Sioux; and the upper part of Wild Rice 

 River, in North Dakota, and of Elm River, tributaries of the Red River, 

 are also unwooded. 



The Red River has no timber, or very little, for 20 miles east from its 

 bend at Breckenridge and Wahpeton. In the next 10 miles downstream it 

 has scattered groves of bur oak, ash, box elder, elm, and basswood, occupy- 

 ing perhaps one-fourth of this distance, while small poplars and willows 

 occasionally appear in the spaces between the groves. Thence to the north 

 this river is continuously fringed with timber, and its larger triljutaries 



