310 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



undulating till '> to 10 feet higher on the northeast and 10 to 20 feet higher 

 on the south and west. 



The Herman beach, a ridge of fine sand, 20 to 25 rods wide and about 

 3 feet high, near the south line of section 36, township 132, range 52, 

 trends to the west-northwest, and has a height of 1,065 feet, approxi- 

 mately. On the north, the exceedingly flat plain of Lake Agassiz, sinking 

 very slowly northeastward, reaches as far as the eye can see. On the 

 south, flat land, covered by Lake Agassiz before the time of this Ijeach, 

 continues 1| miles, ascending in that distance from 1,060 feet to about 

 1,080 feet, and moderately undiflatiug till rises beyond to 1,100 and 

 1,125 feet. 



One and a half miles north of this beach the Wild Rice River is 

 crossed by a bridge near the center of section 25, township 132, range 52. 

 The stream in its ordinary stage is 1 to 2 rods wide, with a depth of about 



3 feet, and is filled with grass and rushes. Its bottom land, a sixth to a third 

 of a mile wide, is about 10 feet higher and is annually overflowed hj the 

 high water in spring. Its blufl^s rise about 40 feet above the river at low 

 water, the elevation of their top and of the adjoining plain being, approxi- 

 mately, 1,050 feet. These blufls and the surface from the Herman beach 

 north to Elk Creek are till, but the country about Wyndmere and south to 

 Elk Creek is stratified, fine clayey sand. Both formations have a very fer- 

 tile soil, imsurpassed for wheat and all crops proper to this latitude. Elk 

 Creek is a stream similar to the Wild Rice River, but smaller, and the widtli 

 and <le])th of its valley are about two-thirds as great. 



Northeni Pacific, Fergus Falls and Black Hills Railroad, track at 

 Wyndmere, 1,062 feet above the sea; at the Herman beach, IJ miles west 

 of Wyndmere, track 1,066 feet, and crest of the beach 1,068 feet, rising 8 

 feet above the adjacent land 20 rods away both east and west; surface 

 along the railroad thence westward S miles, 1,062 to 1,066 feet, with Star 

 Lake, a third of a mile in diameter on this level area, only 2 or 3 feet below 

 the surrounding land close north of the railroad in section 5, township 

 132, range 52; a higher beach of Lake Agassiz, crossed 3 miles east of 

 Milnor, and therefore called the JMilnor beach, crest and track, 1,085 feet, 



4 or 5 feet above the adjoining land 1<) rods away both east and west; 



