212 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



Prof. N. H. Winchell, speaking of the great moraines of the north 

 west, says : " There are two such that cross Minnesota, the older 

 being the Coteau and the younger, the Leaf hills. Corresponding to 

 the latter, the Kettle Range in Wisconsin seems a parallel phe- 

 nomenon." ^ I have seen this belt, west of Minneapolis, and concur 

 in Prof. Winchell's opinion. I have also observed, hastily', what 

 I regard as portions of it — dissevered by the river channels — on 

 the peninsula formed by the bend of the Mississippi and the Min- 

 nesota, south of St. Paul, and on the similar peninsula between 

 the Mississippi and Lake St. Croix; and this seems to be the line 

 of connection between the Wisconsin and Minnesota ranges. It 

 appears to me, therefore, well nigh certain, that the Leaf hills of 

 Minnesota are not only analogous to the Wisconsin Kettle range, 

 but are portions of the same linear formation. 



The multitude of small lakes, found in Wisconsin, lie almost 

 tjxclusively either along the Kettle belt itself, or in the area 

 within, or north of it. The surface outside has a much more per- 

 fect system of drainage, and is almost entirely free from lakelets. 

 The Kettle range constitutes the margin of the lake district. But 

 in Minnesota, south of the Leaf hills, there is an extensive lake 

 region stretching southward in a broad tongue, nearly to the 

 center of Iowa, though the lakes are not very numerous in the 

 latter state. The question naturally arises, whether this lake dis- 

 trict is likewise bordered by similar drift accumulations, and this 

 question, though not essential to the present discussion, has much 

 interest in connection with it. In respect to this, I can only give 

 some detached observations and quotations. As already stated, 

 accumulations of this character occur south of St. Paul. Still 

 further to the southward, in the town of Aurora, Steel county, 

 there is a moderate exhibition of gravelly boulder- bearing hill- 

 ocks and ridges, accompanied by shallow basins and irregular 

 marshes, much after the manner of the formation in question. 

 From the descriptions of Prof. Harrington,- these features appear 



1 Sixth Annual Kept. Geo!. & Nat. Hist. Sur. Minn., p. 106. The R. R. profiles crossing 

 this belt furnish valnable data. See Ann. Kept, for 1872, pp. 53 and 57, and Sixth Ann. Rept., 

 pp. 47 and 156. 



2 Geol. and Nat Hist. Sur, Minn., Ann. Rept. 1875, pp. 103 et seq. 



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