HEEMAN BEACH ENTEEING NORTH DAKOTA. 307 



4, township 128, range 48, nearly 2 miles south from the north line of the 

 Sisseton and Wahpeton Reservation. The ancient shore rises with terrace- 

 like steepness 20 or 30 feet above the surface of undulating till which 

 borders it on the northeast. Its material is sand and gravel, with pebbles 

 up to 1^ or 2 inches in diameter, about half of which are limestone. 

 Beyond its steep margin this deposit of gravel forms a belt about a mile 

 wide, approximately level, but with frequent short swells and low, flattened 

 ridges, 5 to 10 or 15 feet above the intervening depressions. Its elevation 

 is 1,060 to 1,070 feet above the sea, or from 90 to 100 feet above Lake 

 Traverse. 



For its first 3 or 4 miles the terrace-like lakeward margin of this belt 

 of sand and gravel sweeps with a gentle curve westerly and northerly to a 

 2)oint in the southwest quarter of section 34, townsliip 129, range 48, where 

 it turns quite abruptly, taking a nearly due-west course for the next 3 miles 

 to the west side of section 31 of this township. 



In the northwest quarter of section 3, township 128, range 48, a third 

 of a mile east of W. J. Allen's house, the ascent at the margin of this 

 deposit is about 10 feet, to an elevation of 1,060 feet, approximately. The 

 belt of sand and fine gravel is here about a half mile wide. Occasional 

 hummocks, rising 5 to 10 feet and 50 to 100 feet long, which were observed 

 on this part of the belt, appear to have been heaped up by the wind before 

 the protecting mantle of grass and other herbaceous vegetation was spread 

 over it. 



Where this formation enters North Dakota, in the southeast quarter of 

 section 32, township 129, range 48, similar dunes, 1,075 to 1,080 feet above 

 the sea, have l)een excavated for use as plastering sand. Nearly all por- 

 tions of this tract, and even its dunes, are now covered with a black soil and 

 plentiful vegetation; but certain species prefen-ing dry, sandy soil, as the 

 dwarf rose (Rosa arkansana Porter), grow in greater abundance on the sand 

 and gravel belt, and especially among its hummocks and hollows, than on 

 the flat or slightly undulating surface of till at each side. 



The inner margin of this belt, marking the shore of Lake Agassiz at 

 its maximum stage, passes in its western course about 60 rods north of the 

 southeast corner of section 32 and turns a^ain to the northwest near 



