44 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
Between the Waconia moraine and Spiritwood there are no marked 
features. From Spiritwood westward for a distance of 
48 miles no distinctly morainic ridges are visible from 
the train, but it is believed that the various ridges 
constituting the Antelope moraine are present in this 
region, for they have been identified in the country 
north and south of the railway. 
Jamestown is a district terminal, and here a branch turns to the 
right to Pingree and Devils Lake, and another to the left down the 
valley of James River to La Moure and Oakes. The 
country is so thoroughly covered with glacial drift 
that the underlying rocks are not visible along the 
railway, but deep drilling for water showed that in 
general on the upland the drift is merely sufficient to 
conceal the rocks below, and in some of the larger stream valleys it is 
more than 100 feet deep. This indicates that the valleys of such 
streams as James River were in existence before the glacial epoch, that 
during the occupation of this region by the ice they were deeply filled 
with glacial material, and that since then the streams have succeeded 
only in partly clearing them of this material. 
A deep well at the North Dakota Insane Hospital, in the southern 
part of Jamestown, passed through 118 feet of glacial drift, 1,330 feet 
of Cretaceous shale, and about 200 feet of sandstone that is supposed 
to be the Dakota sandstone, at the base of the Upper Cretaceous. The 
top of this sandstone is about at sea level, and rises eastward at the 
rate of about 84 feet to the mile. 
The chief occupation in the country around Jamestown is agricul- 
ture, the crops being wheat, oats, flax, barley, and vegetables. 
West of Jamestown the railway follows the valley of Pipestem 
Creek as far as milepost 94.1. At this point the main valley followed 
by the branch road leading to Pingree and Devils Lake comes in from 
the north, but the main railway line keeps directly ahead up a small 
ravine and reaches the upland near Berner, about 2 miles farther on. 
In this ravine there are many cuts, which afford excellent opportuni- 
ties to study the composition of the drift or till, beneath which in 
some of the cuts a few feet of Cretaceous shale may be seen. In this 
vicinity the railway is supposed to cross parts of the Antelope moraine, 
but nothing resembling a definite ridge is in sight. 
Spiritwood. 
Elevation 1,500 feet. 
Population 264.* 
St. Paul 333 miles. 
Jamestown. 
Elevation 1,429 feet. 
Population 4,358 
St. Paul 344 miles. 
?The mileposts about Jamestown are Evidently about 7 miles has been dropped 
nfusi py See DS Pie +h 
as 
1 
train enters the yards, nearly a mile east 
of the depot, is 99, and the one mentioned 
above, where the branch leaves the main 
line and turns up Pipestem Creek, is 94. 
out of the count, but the figures given for 
each town in the side notes in this bulle- 
tin represent the distances from St. Paul 
that are given in the Northern Pacific 
Railway folder for 1915. 
