OF’ Fie WIEThI 217 
than others. Still, this inequality is much less than in other sections of country of 
the same extent, and less than it otherwise would be here, in consequence of the 
liberal dissemination of the red marls, which are distributed not only in the valleys, 
but up to the very summits of most of the ranges south of Lake Superior. Except- 
ing the sections cut down by water-courses, few precipices occur throughout this 
whole region, and these only among the granitic and trap rocks. 
The valleys between the ridges are mostly narrow, possessing often only sufli- 
cient width to carry off the drainage of the neighbouring high grounds. Where 
they are wider, the central part is generally occupied by tamerack swamps, and by 
drift, and fragments of rock derived from the neighbouring ranges. The smaller 
valleys, which wind among the chains of low hills which make up the main ranges, 
are dry, and like the hills are well wooded, have a good soil, and are sufficiently 
free from boulders to allow of cultivation. 
West of the Bois Brulé, and south of the Great Bend of St. Louis River, the val- 
leys, which are depressed but little below the general level of the country, are 
occupied, in most localities, by either swamps or natural meadows. Some of these 
meadows are very extensive, and bear a luxuriant growth of grass, often five or six 
feet in height. It is coarse, but sweet, and is said to make an excellent hay, being 
much used as provender for cattle in all the pineries, and in the settled parts of — 
the territory where it grows. The soil of these valleys is generally lacustrine. 
Many of them present every indication of having been uncovered or drained at a 
comparatively recent period; while some of them are evidently in process of drain- 
age at the present time, and so rapidly, that a large addition to the tillable land of 
the territory may be safely calculated upon at no very distant date. Should it be- 
come desirable to do so, the process of drainage might be easily accelerated by art, 
and at inconsiderable expense. 
A very interesting and important characteristic of the third division, and which 
it possesses in common with the fourth, is the number of small lakes which abound 
throughout almost its whole area. The surface of the country is literally studded 
with them. In some sections it would be impossible to travel five miles, in any 
direction, without striking a lake. Although, on the eastern and western boun- 
daries of the District, they extend farther south than the forty-fifth degree of lati- 
tude, the great body of them is situated north of a line drawn from the mouth of 
Little Wisconsin River to the Falls of St. Croix River. West of the Bois Brulé, 
they extend from the highlands south of Lake Superior, south and west, to the 
Mississippi; and, crossing that river, from near the Falls of St. Anthony to Lake 
Winibigoshish, form, about the head-waters of the Des Moines, and of the Mankato, 
Waraju, and Le Sueur, branches of St. Peter's River, the “Undine Region” of 
Nicollet; and, further north, the still greater assemblage of lakes which include 
the sources of the Mississippi and of Red River of the North; and beyond the 
northern water-shed, in the fourth district, the sources of Big Fork and Little Fork 
Rivers; and south of it, those of the western tributaries of the St. Louis River. 
For description, the lakes of the second, third, and fourth districts, may be divided 
into two classes, or, rather, varieties, and the descriptions will, at the same time, 
apply to those of the first, and many of those of the fifth district. 
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