THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 11 
Fort Snelling and the Falls of Minnehaha can be reached from St. 
Paul by several routes, but whoever wishes to see the rocks and the 
way they have been carved by the streams should take the Snelling 
car, which follows the Mississippi upstream for about 6 miles directly 
to Fort Snelling. The roadway is on a bench or terrace nearly half 
a mile wide, which stands about 100 feet above the river and on a 
part of which the business portion of St. Paul has been built. The 
terrace is underlain by the Platteville limestone, which may be seen 
at a number of places, and it is evidently a remnant of a valley that 
existed there before the present channel of the river was excavated 
in its floor. The accompanying diagram (fig. 1) is a cross section of 
the valley as it appears to-day. If the channel of the river should 
be filled to the broken line it would represent the valley floor as it 
was before the present channel was cut, when the river was flowing 
at the level of the terrace. As the rocks are not exposed at any 
place in the bottom of the valley it is evident that the old rock-cut 
valley has been nlled by sediment (alluvium) brought down by the 
stream, but the depth of this filling has not been accurately deter- 
Ws YH 
FiGURE 1.—Section across Mississippi Valley between St. Paul and Fort Snelling, Minn., looking east. 
The broken line represents the bottom of the valley before the present channel was cut. 
mined. A deep well sunk in St. Paul northeast of the Union Station 
struck solid rock 100 feet below river level. At some remote time 
the river channel was therefore at least 100 feet deeper than it is 
now, and since that time it has been filled by mud and sand up to 
the level of the present river bottom. 
At Fort Snelling -he main valley continues to the southwest, but 
it is occupied only by Minnesota River,’ a stream manifestly too— 
small for the valley in which it is flowing; and, on the other hand, 
Mississippi River above Fort Snelling is out of proportion to the 
narrow gorge in which it is confined. To even the most casual 
observer the streams appear to be misplaced; the larger stream is 
flowing in the smaller valley and vice versa. The size and relation 
of the river valleys about St. Paul show clearly that they have under- 
gone many changes which do not occur in streams developing under 
normal conditions. Changes of this kind have taken place in many 
of the streams in the northern part of the United States. They are 
" Featherstonhaugh says that the In- | white settlers the name St. Peter was 
dian name of this river was Minnay Sotor, | applied to it; but later woe ee ” 
meaning turbid waters. By the early | was revived, with the 
