322 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



land aud three-fifths of a mile east of the Herman beach, 1,076 feet; bed 

 of the creek, 1,057 feet; track at summit, 4^ miles west from the Herman 

 beach, same as the natm-al surface, 1,208 feet; and at Buftalo, a half mile 

 farther west, 1,202 feet. 



FROM THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD NORTH TO GALESBURG. 



(PLATE XXVIII.) 



The Herman beach, a broad, smoothly rounded, continuous ridge of 

 the same material and contour as southward, runs to the north-northeast for 

 the next 4 miles north from the Northern Pacific Railroad, with its crest at 

 1,097 to 1,100 feet, very constant in elevation. The descent of its east 

 slope is 15 or 20 feet in about 20 rods, and of its west slope about 5 feet. 

 Thence westward the sm-face is undulating- till, in swells 10 to 15 feet above 

 the depressions, rising gradually to 1,150 and 1,200 feet above the sea at a 

 distance of 3 to 5 miles, the farthest seen in that direction. In a broad 

 view this area seems an almost flat ^^lain. 



Where this beach is cut by the branch of the Great Northern Railway 

 from Ripon to Hope, near the middle of the line between sections 32 and 

 33, Empu'e, its crest was 1,096 to 1,099 feet above the sea. It has been 

 excavated here for ballast to a distance of about 30 rods south from the 

 railway. It is mostly gravel; the pebbles seldom exceed 2 inches in diam- 

 eter; about half is limestone, and the remainder granitic. The thickness of 

 this beach dejjosit is only 8 to 10 feet; its east slope falls 12 or 15 feet, and 

 its west slope 5 to 7 feet. 



On the floor of this excavation, about 10 rods south from the railway, 

 in the upper foot of the till or bowlder-clay, under the gravel, numerous 

 bones of a mammoth were found in the year 1884. These included a tusk 

 11 feet long and 9 inches in diameter (tapering to 6 inches at the smaller 

 end, where it was broken off), three teeth, two vertebrje, and several other 

 bones. They were embedded in the top of the till, and the overlying beach 

 formation has yielded no bones, shells, or other fossils. 



Southward from this locality the Herman beach is doul)le for a dis- 

 tance of about 4 miles. The secondary Ijeach ridge east of that already 

 described is similar in size and material. Its south end is in the west part 



