NOROROSS BEACHES IN NORTH DAKOTA. 389 



The next definite observations of the Norcross shore were on the 

 northern part of the Sheyenue delta. In the soutliwest corner of section 

 20, Helendale (the most northwestern township of Richland Connty), this 

 shore is marked by a low beach ridge, whicli rnns to the north-northwest, 

 passing- abont 20 rods west of Mr. R. L. Porter's honse. The crest of the 

 ridge rises 5 to 8 feet above the general snrface of this sand delta, from 

 which it is distinguished by being somewhat more channeled and heaped 

 np by the winds into low dnnes, f) to 10 feet in height. Scattered cotton- 

 woods, growing either alone or in clumps of a few trees, are more frequent 

 along the conrse of the beach than on the adjoining tracts. About 5 miles 

 farther north, where this shore is crossed by the Fargo and Sonthwestern 

 Railroad, 3 to 4 miles west of Leonard, it bears three small beach ridges, 

 with crests at 1,0G2 to 1,06.') feet. The most westerly and highest is about 

 18 rods wide, with a depression of 6 feet on the east and f) feet on the west. 



Thence northwai-d across Cass County the contour of tlie western 

 border of Lake Agassiz shows that the Norcross shore-line runs nearly 

 parallel with the Herman beach, from which it is distant 1 to 3 miles east- 

 ward; but only small fragments of its course have been mapped. 



Beginning in southwestern Traill County, near Clifford, the Norcross 

 shore has been traced nearly continuously more than 100 miles north to 

 the international boundary. About a mile northwest from Clifford it is 

 marked by a broad swell or ridge of sand and gravel, 1 to 2 feet above the 

 surface of till on the we.st. Its elevation is 1,072 feet above the sea. One 

 to IJ miles farther north, in the south half of section !), Norman, tlie shore 

 deposit becomes a typical beach ridge, with crest at l,07r) to 1,077 feet, 

 having a hollow of 2 to 4 feet on the west and a descending slope on the 

 east which falls 30 feet in a third of a mile. Thence northward in section 

 4 of this township the shore forms an eroded cliff of till, 10 to 1.5 feet high, 

 with its base at 1,075 feet. In the next mile to the north, through section 

 33, township 146, range .53, the line of erosion is continued, crossing an 

 area of gravel and sand. The escarpment rises about 10 feet in 4 to 6 rods 

 from east to west, its l)ase being at 1,073 to 1,075 feet, from which a smooth 

 slope of sand and fine gravel falls about 25 feet in two-thirds of a mile east- 

 ward. In the north part of section 20 two wells on this tract of modified 



