RELIEF AND DRAINAGE. 39 



The entire district has been overrun by g-laciers, and in consequence 

 glacial drift is widely distributed. In places it is very thin, but in other 

 places it has accumulated to a considerable depth over large areas. In 

 these areas the striking features of the topography are due essentially 

 to the drift. However, the present relief can easily be seen to have been 

 superimposed upon a pre-Glacial topography of very different character. 

 A deep covering of drift occurs in all four of the greater areas above 

 outlined, and modifies the topography locally. 



DRAINAGE. 



One can not glance at the topographic maps of the Vermilion district 

 in the accompanying atlas without being impressed by the abundance of 

 lakes in it. These numerous lakes, with their connecting streams, make 

 the district comparatively easy of access. They have enabled us to study 

 the geology with a much smaller expenditure of time and money than 

 would be required if they did not exist. The presence of these lakes 

 is clearly indicative of. an immature drainage system, which is further 

 shown by the absence of streams of larg-e size, by the fact that the 

 small and short streams which do exist merely serve to connect the 

 lakes into strings, and, by the fact that these streams are frequently 

 interrupted in their courses by rapids and falls. The presence of large 

 muskegs in some portions of the district still further emphasizes this very 

 imperfect drainage. 



Hydrographic basins. — These lakes and the streams which feed and drain 

 them belong to the large hydrographic basins of the St. Lawrence River 

 and Hudson Bay. The area belonging to the St. Lawrence drainage basin 

 is very small. It is drained by a small stream — the headwaters of the 

 Embarrass River, a tributary of the St. Louis — which rises in Putman 

 Lake, sec. 18, T. 61 N., R. 14 W., and flows south, finally emptying into 

 Lake Superior. It is interesting to note that this small stream, flowing 

 south, runs for a considerable distance, in the area outside of the district 

 mapped, nearly parallel with Pike River, a stream 5 miles west of it, whose 

 waters flow north and belong to the Hudson Bay drainage. 



By far the greater part of the district belongs to the drainage basin of 

 Hudson Bay. The waters in this district flow north and west, collecting 

 finally in Rainy Lake and draining through the river of the same name into 



