348 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



as many rods, and on the west an equal descent takes place within 8 or 10 

 rods; The steep western sloj^e of this beach or bar, forming the east rim 

 of the strait that filled the Elk Valley, was due to storms on the broad 

 lake, rolling its waves upon the bar and carrying the sand and coarse 

 gravel upward and over its crest. Turning nortliwestward, this beach 

 passes into the northeast quarter of section 4, where it consists of irregular 

 accumulations of gravel and sand, occupying a width of an eighth to a 

 fourth of a mile, with their crests at 1,155 to 1,1 G2 feet. In the north 

 edge of section 4 it again becomes a definite beach ridge of the same 

 material and contour as in section 3, and thus passes northeast and north 

 through section 33, Inkster, with its crest mostly at 1,165 to 1,172 feet, its 

 lowest part, about 1,162 feet, being near the center of the section. The 

 two islands before described, this beach or bar, and the long island next 

 northward are together commonly called "Tlie Ridge," being the eastern 

 limit of the Elk Valley, which averages 4 miles wide, 1,150 to 1,140 feet 

 above the sea in its eastern and central portions, but rising with a trans- 

 verse slope to 1,160 feet on its western border. 



A third island above the highest stage of Lake Agassiz, 3 miles long 

 from south to north and a quarter to a half mile wide, varying in elevation 

 along its highest part from 1,170 to 1,223 feet, reaches through sections 

 28 and 21, the west half of section 16, and into the southwest corner of 

 section 9, Inkster. It is till, Avith somewhat uneven surface, bearing fre- 

 (juent bowlders. Beach deposits occur on the east flank of this island in 

 section 21 at 1,155 to 1,165 feet, and from 1,155 feet a smooth slope of 

 sand and fine gravel falls slowly eastward along the east side of this 

 highland through the greater part of its extent. 



In the southeast part of section S, Inkster, irregular accumulations 

 of beach gravel, with crests at 1,170 to 1,175 feet, 10 to 15 feet above 

 the adjoining depressions of till, extend northward fro)n the island just 

 described; and in the north part of this section 8 the beach sinks within an 

 eighth of a mile from 1,172 to 1,161 feet and changes to a broad, smooth 

 ridge, whicli thence passes northward through section 5 of this township, 

 in which it is intersected by the Forest River, and through the west half 

 of section 32, Eden, near the center of which it has tlu'ee aboriginal 



