304 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



The most eastern observatluii of tlie upper shore-line of Lake Agassiz 

 in northern ^linnesota is hy Mr. Horace \. Wiuchell, on the Bowstring 

 River, more commonly known as the Big Fork of Rainy River, some 60 

 miles east of Red Lake. In his description of the ascent of this stream 

 Mr. Wiuchell writes as follows of the locality, probaljly about 1,250 feet 

 above the sea, where the surface changes from a smooth contour on the 

 uortli, indicating lacustrine action, to a more undulating and rolling con- 

 tour on the south, above the level of Lake Agassiz: 



At the end of 7.i miles the foot of a rapid nearly one-half a mile long is reached. 

 At the foot of it is a bank of gravel and sand [probably the beach of Lake Agassiz]. 

 It is a very different sort of bank from those seen below here. It is stratiHed, or par- 

 tially so, but not horizontally nor all in the same direction. It looks like a stratified 

 river deposit. Under it crops out a little fine bluish-gray clay, of which only a foot 

 or two can be seen. This is supposed to be Cretaceous. * * * There are many 

 limestone pebbles in the bank above the clay, but no shale is seen in it. 



This rajjid is over an immense number of bowlders. Most of them are horn- 

 blendic gneiss, but other rocks are frequent. Many of the bowlders are large and 

 stick up several feet above the water. A short distance up the rapid is a small island 

 which seems to be made of bowlders and is covered with trees and bushes. * * * 



Above the rapids (quantities of bowlders are seen, while below only a few were 

 encountered. The country does not seem to be of one general level, as before, but is 

 knolly. The banks are of sand and gravel and contain nuich more gravel than those 

 below the rapids. This is about 95 miles up the river, probably in townshij) 62, range 

 25. It seems i^robable that the rapid mentioned above is on the boundary or shore t)f 

 the glacial Lake Agassiz, and that all of the river below this rapid is included in the 

 ancient basin.' 



BELTKAMI ISLAND. 



The recent survey for the Duluth and AVinnipeg Railroad, passing 

 northwest by the east end of Red Lake and the southwest side of the Lake 

 of the Woods, shows that the former of these lakes lies about 40 feet and 

 the latter somewhat more than 150 feet below the highest level of Lake 

 Agassiz. The height of Red Lake above the sea is ascertained to be 1,172 

 feet, and of the Lake of the Woods, in its stages of low and high water, 

 1,057 to 1,063 feet. Northeast of Red Lake the Tamarack River di'ains a 

 large tract of tamarack, spruce, and arbor-vitse swamp, which reaches to 



' Geol. liud Nat. Hist. Survey of Minnesota, Sixteenth Annual Report, for 1887, p. 434. 



