350 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



two plateaus left in the midst of the valley are till, yellowish near the top 

 and dark-bluish below. 



The elevation of "the mountains" in their southern and narrower 

 portion, tlu'ougli the west part of Eden and the northeast comer of Med- 

 ford, is 1,190 to 1,225 feet; tlu-ough the east half of Vernon, 1,200 to 

 1,250 feet; in the south part of Golden, 1,200 to 1,260 feet, and tlu-ough 

 the north half of this township and the south half of Lampton, 1,200 to 

 1,275 feet, being highest in section 28 of the township last named, near 

 the northern end of this hilly tract. These prominent accumulations of 

 till, rising in the west edge of the lacustrine area, seem referable, as shown 

 in Chapter IV, to the ninth or Leaf Hills moraine. They appear to have 

 been formed on the western margin of the Minnesota lobe of the ice-sheet. 



The east border of "the mountains," in section 20, Eden, falls some- 

 what steeply to about 1,135 feet, and thence a flat slope, with no beach 

 ridges, sinks slowly eastward. In the northeast quarter of section 7 in 

 this township a well-defined beach ridge 10 to 15 rods wide, composed of 

 sand and gi-avel, with pebbles up to 2 or 3 inches in diameter, extends 25 

 rods south from an eastern spm* of the hilly till ; crest of this spm*, about 

 1,195 feet; of the beach, 1,172 feet, with depression of 3 to 6 feet on the 

 west. Irregular beach accumulations, 10 to 20 feet lower, continue south- 

 ward nearly a half mile. 



In section 30, Rushford, the eastern border of this rolling and hilly 

 area falls 75 feet or more within a third of a mile, to about 1,100 feet. Its 

 material is till, with scanty deposits of beach gravel and sand, not distinctly 

 accumulated in ridge form. About half way down this slope it shows in 

 some places a more abi'upt escarpment, with steep descent of 15 or 20 feet. 

 The same features continue through section 19, except that a series of dis- 

 tinct beach deposits is observable about 25 rods east from the crest of the 

 slope, at 1,170 to 1,175 feet, probably formed during the second Herman 

 stage of Lake Agassiz. A descent of 125 feet takes place within a half 

 mile on the east side of "the mountains," near where it is cut by a large 

 but short ravine, in the southeast quarter of section 12, Vernon, falling 

 from 1,180 to 1,050 feet, approximately, with no well-defined shore-lines 

 observable. A grove lies at the east base of this slope a thu-d of a mile 



