THE ELK VALLEY DELTA. 335 



Cretaceous shale in particles up to a twentieth of an inch in diameter, 40 

 feet, with much water. Hard blue till was found at the bottom. The other 

 wells of this town are said to obtain their supply of water at a depth of 

 about 20 feet, in the upper part of this sand derived chiefly from shale. In 

 Northwood and Ilatton, also, water is found at depths of only 10 to 20 feet 

 before reaching the base of the delta sand. 



The volume of this extensive sand and silt delta is about 1^ or 2 cubic 

 miles. It occupies more than thrice the area of the delta of the Pembina 

 River, but is much shallower, so that they are nearly equal in their cubic 

 contents, or this is the smaller; and it has nine times or perhaps twelve 

 times the volume of either of the two deltas of this lake in Minnesota, 

 lying on the Buffalo and Sand Hill rivers. Yet here no stream of signifi- 

 cant size enters the lake area. There are, indeed, not less than a dozen 

 small streams, the headwaters of the Turtle and Goose rivers, which 

 descend to the delta from the till-covered Cretaceous highland on the west; 

 but none of them has a large valley or extensive basiii of drainage, and it 

 would be difiicult to decide which one of three or four is most worthy 

 of consideration. The delta, however, in its position, the outlines of its 

 extent, and the directions and rate of its slopes, seems independent of 

 them all. 



Northward from Larimore and McCanua, where the surface of this 

 delta is liighest, a very noteworthy topographic feature of the western 

 border of the lacustrine area has received the name of Elk Valley in its 

 southern portion, and in its northern continuation is called the Golden 

 Valley. These are parts of one continuous belt which was at first the 

 course of a glacial river, and afterward became a sound or strait extending 

 about 40 miles along the coast of Lake Agassiz at its highest stage. It 

 was divided from the main lake by a series of several small islands of 

 knoUy and hilly till, occasionally connected together by a low beach 

 embankment or bar, formed by the lake waves. The Elk Valley is com- 

 monly regarded as beginning at Larimore, but it may more strictly be said 

 to begin 9 miles farther north, at the most southern of its inclosing islands. 

 It extends north from Larimore 29 miles to Ramseys Groves, on the North 

 Branch of the Forest River, with a width of about 4 miles for the greater 



