334 THE CRYSTAL FALLS lEOIJf-BBARIN'G DISTEIGT. 



DRAIlSrAGE. 



Nearly all the surface water of this district finds its way to Lake 

 Michigaia through the Michigamme and the Sturgeon rivers, which are inde- 

 pendent branches of the Menominee — the largest river flowing into Lake 

 Michigan from the west. A few square miles along the eastern boundary, 

 however, are tributary to the Ford, which flows into Green Bay north of 

 the Menominee. Of these the Michigamme drains by far the largest part 

 of the district. This river heads in Lake Michigamme, which it leaves in 

 sec. 9, T. 47 N., R 30 W., near the northeast corner of the area shown 

 on the general map (PL II), at an elevation above the sea of 1,580 feet. 

 Thence it flows for 8 miles southeast to Republic, in a synclinal valley cut 

 out of the soft schists of the Michigamme formation. This valley, which 

 is nearly a mile wide at the northern end and less than half as wide at the 

 southern, is bordered on both sides by the harder Archean granites, which 

 rise with rather steep slopes to the general level of the plain. Throughout 

 the length of the valley the river flows over glacial drift, but at Republic, 

 where the soft rocks come to an end, it breaks across rocky barriers in a 

 succession of rapids, and continues first nearly due south (leaving the dis- 

 trict covered by our map), and then flows southwest over glacial deposits, 

 which completely mask the bed rock for 10 miles. South of the Archean 

 oval, which occupies the western part of T. 44 N., R. 31 W., and the east- 

 ern part of T. 44 N., R. 32 W., the limestones and slates of the pre- 

 Cambrian are again exposed, and over these the Michigamme flows in close 

 conformity to the general strike as far as the range line. 



In the southern sections of T. 44 N., R. 31 W., the Michigamme receives 

 two tributaries from the north — the Fence River, which comes from the 

 eastern side of the Archean mass just mentioned, and the Deer River, which 

 comes from its western side. The headwaters of the Deer and of the west- 

 ern branch of the Fence flow through the same section (21) in T. 46 N., 

 R. 32 W., north of the Archean oval, but farther south they diverge to an 

 extreme distance of 10 miles, and afterwards converge so that their points 

 of junction with the Michigamme are but 4 miles apart. The area thus 

 inclosed is broadly concentric with the Archean oval. In the case of the 

 Fence, at least, the river is placed within a wide depression coincident with 

 the softer stratified rocks of the Algonkian, and follows very faithfully their 



