34 THE VERMILION IRON-BEARING DISTRICT. 



The evidence upon which the above formations are grouped into series 

 and these correlated with the formations in other districts of the Lake 

 Superior region will appear in subsequent pages. In this place is given 

 merely a categorical statement of the problems to be treated. 



The accompanying general map (PL II) shows the distribution of the 

 various formations enumerated above. The reader is able to get a better 

 idea of the relationship of the formations and their distribution throughout 

 the entire district from a study of this general map than he could from the 

 examination of the larger-scale maps in the atlas, which are of relatively 

 small areas. On the larger-scale sheets, in the accompanying atlas, details 

 of topography are shown which could not be shown on the general map. 

 These atlas sheets and the other more detailed sheets on a still larger 

 scale are more accurate than the general map and should be used in a 

 detailed geologic study of the district having in view the location of 

 possible productive properties. 



PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



RELIEF. 



That portion of Minnesota included within the limits given above is 

 most commonly known in commercial reports and locally as the " Vermil- 

 ion iron range." The term "range" is in this case, however, a misnomer, 

 if one understands thereby an area with strongly marked topographic 

 features which cause it to stand out from the adjacent areas. The Ver- 

 milion district is one in which the relief is not very great. The maximum 

 elevation is attained by a hill in sec. 28, T. 65 N., R. 4 W., near the east 

 end of the district, which reaches a height of 2,120 feet above sea level, or 

 1,518 feet above the mean level of Lake Superior, which is 601.56 feet 

 above the sea. This is one of the highest points in the State, the highest 

 hill having a reported altitude of 2,230 feet." The lowest valley is that 

 occupied by Basswood Lake, in which the water level is 1,300 feet above 

 the sea, or 698 feet above Lake Superior. There is, then, a difference of 820 

 feet between the lowest water level and the highest hill within the district. 

 The above extremes in height are found at opposite ends of the district, 

 and, as the general slope is to the northwest, the average relief is very 

 nuich less than 820 feet, approaching 400 or 500 feet. It is to be further 



"Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Minnesota, Final Rept., Vol. IV, 1899, p. 481. 



