THE LEAF HILLS. 163 



NIXTII OR LEAF HILLS MORAIXE. 



West of tlie Mississippi the Leaf Hills moraine passes through eastern 

 Cass County in a belt of knolly and hilly till, with extensive kame deposits 

 of gravel and sand, occupying- together a width of 2 to 4 miles, extending 

 southwesterly by Crooked, White Fish, Pelican, Gull, and Sylvan lakes, to 

 the Crow Wing River about 10 miles west of Brainerd. Crossing to the 

 south side of the Crow Wing, it is merged with the Fergus Falls moraine 

 in the plexus of niorainic accumulations surrounding Lake Alexander and 

 Fish Trap Lake. Thence it passes west through the northern tier of town- 

 ships in Todd County to the Leaf Lakes in Ottertail County.^ 



The Leaf Hills," extending southward and then westward from the 

 Leaf Lakes, through East Battle Lake, Folden, Effington, Leaf Mountain, 

 and Eagle Lake townshi])s, are the combined Fergus Falls and Leaf Hills 

 moraines, like the great moririnic belt south of Stump and Devils lakes, in 

 North Dakota. Beyond Eagle Lake the Leaf Hills moraine is again 

 separate, passing northwest and north in a well-marked belt, 1 to 3 miles 

 wide, of knolls, short ridges, and low hills of till, with abundant bowlders, 

 through Tordenskjold, Swerdrup, Maine, Star Lake, and Edna townships, 

 amid multitudes of lakes, to the prominent group of kames aljout 5 miles 

 northwest of Perham. A parallel belt of low morainic hills extends north- 

 northwestward from East Leaf Lake, passing a few miles east of Rush 

 Lake to the south end and east side of Pine Lake.^ 



In Becker County, according to my observations in 1889, these mo- 

 rainic belts become united and form conspicuous liills of till, with many 

 bowlders, denominated the Toad Mountains, which rise 100 to 200 feet 

 above the general level or 1,500 to 1,600 feet above the sea. Northward 

 this moraine has a width of 4 to 6 miles in low hillocks, little ridges, and 

 knolls, including much kame gravel and sand, in its course by Round, 

 Many Point, and Elbow lakes, and the exti-eme source of the Red River. 

 About Rock Island Lake and east of the Twin Lakes, in townships 143 



'Geology of Minnesota, Vol. II, 1888, pp. 581-584, 606; 56-t, 571,572. 



-The name given by the Ojibways to this belt of hills signifies Rustling Leaf Mountain, and the 

 same name is by them also extended to the Leaf Lakes and River (Rev. J. A. Gilfillan, in the Fifteenth 

 Annual Report, Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Minnesota, for 1886, p. 469). 



3 Geology of Minnesota, Vol. II, pp. 546-549. 



