632 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



The Red River (pages 54-56) lias four improved powers, varying in 

 head from 10 to 15 feet, in the city of Fergus Falls. Moderate expense 

 in tlie construction of dams to make Ottertail, Rush, and Pine lakes reser- 

 voirs, filled in spring several feet above their present level and drawn down 

 in time of di'ought, would nuich increase the available water power of 

 this river at Fergus Falls and along all its extent from Ottertail Lake to 

 Breckenridge. In this distance the river falls nearly 375 feet, averaging 5 

 feet per mile. Its bed is the hard, stony clay of the glacial drift, affording 

 a good foundation for dams, and along most of tins distance the sloping 

 river banks permit the water to be carried in canals so as to furnish any 

 amount of head desired for milling purposes. On the west the wheat of the 

 Red River Valley, and on the east oak, maple, ash, and pine timber, invite 

 the fui'ther utilization of this magnificent water power. ^ 



A series of lakes that are the som'ces of the Pelican River, tending to 

 equalize its flow in wet and dry seasons, and the descent of this stream 

 about 200 feet from Lake Lizzie to its mouth, with a channel and V)anks of 

 glacial drift, make its water power almost equally valuable with that of the 

 Red River. 



Large lakes which serve as reservoirs also give a high degree of con- 

 stancy to the water power of the Clearwater and Red Lake rivers (pages 

 52-54), already partially utilized at Red Lake Falls and Crookston, and 

 especially to the power of the falls of the Rainy River at Koochiching 

 and Fort Frances (page 50), and to the many rajaids and waterfalls of 

 the Winnipeg River (pages 51, 52). These streams will doubtless some 

 day become the sites of large maiuifacturing cities, where the wheat of the 

 prau'ies will be made into flour and the timber of the adjoining forests Avill 

 be manufactured into lumber, paper, furniture, and various wooden wares. 

 While agriculture will be the leading occupation in the prairie region of 

 Lake Agassiz, more diverse industries will grow up in the wooded country 

 of its eastern and northern portions. 



' For details of the water jiower of the Eed River and its tributaries, see "The water power of 

 the Northwcpt" (pp. 104), by James L. Greenleaf, iu Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, Vol. 

 XVII. 



