THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 27 
West of Bluffton the morainic character of the topography con- 
tinues for some eeyeice but gradually gives place to the rolling 
country about New York Mills. The less broken 
New York Mills. oes here is well suited to agriculture, and fine 
Elevation 1,433 feet. farms may be seen on both sides of the track. 
bhi onions ett The railway is here on the divide between the 
Hudson Bay and Mississippi River drainage systems. 
It is not at all certain that before the glaciers covered this country 
the divide was at this place, as all the stream courses have been 
either materially modified or completely rearranged by the ice sheets 
that invaded the State. The present divide is not made evident 
by any well-marked ridge, and the appearance of the country will 
not probably show the traveler that he is crossing.from one of the 
great drainage basins of the continent to another. The figures given 
for the slovatii of the towns show that New York Mills is a little 
higher than the towns on either side and hence that the water part- 
ing is near that place. 
At milepost 187 the railway crosses Otter Tail River, the first 
large stream passed i in the Hudson Bay drainage basin. This stream 
has its origi in a number of beautiful lakes near the Northern 
Pacific line and flows southward through Rush Lake to Otter Tail 
Lake, the largest body of water in the region. Thence it flows 
westward and joins the Bois des Sioux at Breckenridge, forming Red 
River. 
After crossing Otter Tail River, which meanders broadly in a 
swampy bottom about a mile in width, the railway traverses a roll- 
ing plain of rich agricoltaral land near the center 
Perham. of which stands the prosperous town of Perham, so 
Elevation 1,390feet. named for the first president of the Northern Pacific 
see etianits, Railroad Co. The surface of this plain is formed of 
sand and gravel washed out from the front of the 
western ice sheet as the big moraine to the west and north was 
being deposited. Pine, Little Pine, and Marion lakes lie a few miles 
from the track on the right, and ihe cottages and hotels along their 
parts, however, enough is known to war- 
rant the statement that the positions of 
the preglacial stream courses were not 
widely different from those of to-day. 
The Mississippi flows locally in a new 
course past St. Anthony Falls, at Little 
Falls, and at Sauk Rapids; but drilling 
has shown that a deeply buried valley, 
which is 200 feet or more below the pres- 
ent stream, lies near the river and in 
places crosses it. 
glacial epoch did not consist 
simply in the growth and disappearance 
of a single great continental glacier; there 
were stages of great extension of the ice, 
separated by stages in which it was 
greatly reduced if not entirely melted 
away. There were also several centers 
of exceptionally great snowfall and snow 
and ice accumulation, from which the 
ice epee or flowed outward. From 
3, p. 32.) The western 
parts of the State were covered by ice 
