AREA AND DRAINAGE BASIN OF LAKE SUPERIOR 117 



lacustrine region of Rainy lake, from whicli it is separated 

 toward the east by the Iron or Mesahi range. Elsewhere its 

 sei)aration from this region, and in the west and south from the 

 basin of the upper Mississippi, is low and ill-defined, character- 

 ized by the presence of lakes, ponds, and swamps. Its source is 

 in Otter lake, 30 miles from the northwest shore of Lake Supe- 

 rior and 1,650 feet above sea-level, or 1,050 feet above tlie lake 

 surface. It Hows southwest until about 25 miles from tbe Missis- 

 sippi river, when it turns sharply southeast, soon descends nearly 

 all its 1.050 feet of fall, and enters Lake Superior through a long 

 estuar3^ Its minimum How. of water is nil, for it is sometimes 

 frozen solid. Its average contribution to the lake is estimated 

 b}' Greenleaf* at 1,242 cubic feet per second, but it is probably 

 consi(U'ral)ly larger. The rapids are at the Dalles, below the 

 mouth of its tributary, the Cloquet, and but a few miles above 

 Duluth. The presence of a considerable stream with a large 

 fall within a short distance of two such prosperous towns as 

 Superior and Duluth, has suggested to enterprisng engineers the 

 scheme of damming the St Louis above the Dalles and bringing 

 its w\aters to these cities under ahead of 650 feet, as an enormous 

 source of cheap powder. Ex-Rei)resentative M. 11. Haldwin. of that 

 Congressional district, makes the following report on this i)lan: 



" This company has discovered that by putting a dam just above Cloquet 

 it can make a reservoir which will not only be the larorest in the world, 

 but will lie entirely within the bluflfs of the natural streams ; that from 

 the level to which the river will be raised by the proposed dam the water 

 can be taken in a straight line through a canal or pipe, only twelve miles 

 long, to the bluffs back of Duluth, at an elevation of ().)0 feet al>ove I^ike 

 Sui)eiior, and that by the storage in this great reservoir of the flood 

 waters, which now go to waste, a supply of water will be available for 

 use under that head, which will create the greatest water-power in tiie 

 world." 



One curious difhculty is found in the fact that if tiie dam is 

 made too high the reservoir will empty into the Mississippi river 

 and thus contribute to the water-power of Minnea|>()lis instead 

 of to that of Duluth. 



Reference has been made to the estuary at the mouth of the 

 St Louis. This has so many features of interest that it deserves a 

 fuller treatment than space will here i)ermit. SuHice it to say, that 

 Lake Superior has been robbed of the extremity of her horn by 

 the combined action of the water of the river and the waves of the 



♦ Report on tlie Water-Power of the Nortliwest ; Census of 1880, vol. xvii, p. 73. 



