46 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
can be seen from the train. The tracks cross the Gary moraine (see 
sketch map on sheet 5, p. 44) a short distance west 
Crystal Springs. of this town, but as the railway follows an old outlet 
Elevation 1,802 feet. channel, the moraine, as seen from the train, does not 
Population 216,* 5 : 3 
St. Paul 382 miles, appear to be particularly prominent. A mile or so 
to the left (south) of the track the moraine is strongly 
developed, consisting of a ridge at least 125 feet higher than the 
plain on the west. The gravel showing in big pits near Ladoga 
is outwash material from the front of the ice when it built the 
moraine. 
Beyond Crystal Springs the country is drift covered but generally 
flat. This topography continues to Tappen, a flour- 
Tappen. ishing village in a belt of good farming land. Seem- 
Sonne feet. ingly the glacier in passing over this country had 
St. Paul 389 miles, little effect except to smooth off and fill up most of 
the irregularities in the old topography. 
In the vicinity of Dawson the most pronounced geologic and 
topographic feature is the Altamont moraine, which was produced 
y the Wisconsin ice sheet at the time of its maxi- 
Dawson. mum extension. As shown on the sketch map on 
wisp saany Saher sheet 5 (p. 44), there is a great reentrant angle in 
} ' this moraine almost due east of Bismarck, at about 
the place where it is crossed by the Northern Pacific Railway. 
Owing to this reentrant the moraine trends parallel with the track 
and is visible for several miles. West of Dawson there are heavy 
deposits of drift which probably belong to this moraine. They 
are especially prominent in a cut a mile long between mileposts 
147 and 148. 
The same rolling topography occurs in the vicinity of Steele 
as far west as the western margin of the 
moraine. Outwash gravel is also abundant about 
reat olay waaay Steele, as is indicated by the hills of gravel and 
St. Paul 402 miles. by the pits from which the railway has procured 
gravel for ballast. 
At Driscoll (see sheet 7, p. 54) is the highest land that is crossed 
by the Northern Pacific Railway east of Missouri River. Near mile- 
post 163 an old drainage channel, including a chain 
Driscoll. of shallow lakes, crosses the moraine obliquely in a 
a feet. southwesterly direction. West of this gap and north 
St. Paul 413 miles, Of Sterling the hills rise again in a narrow morainic 
ridge which extends to the northeast for a long dis- 
tance. Beyond Driscoll the railway gradually descends to Missouri 
River, which in the early days was the great highway to the north- 
Steele. 
