288 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



Table VII. — A list of elevations and distances, &c. — Continued. 



Height above 

 the sea. 



FROM GLYNDON TO SAINT VINCENT OR PEMBINA. 



Glyndon 



Buffalo River, (grade) 



Wild Rice River, (grade) 



Rolette Station 



Kittson Station , 



Red Lake River, (grade) 



Three hundred and forty mile-post 



Tamarack River, (grade) 



South Branch, Two Rivers, (grade) 



Red River bank at Saint Vincent, (opposite Pembina) 



Four of these tables (II, III, IV, V,) give us the elevations of trans- 

 verse sections almost and in some cases directly along east and west 

 lines, crossing the direction of the leading streams at right angles, 

 enabling us to judge quite correctly in regard to the topography so far 

 as it relates to this direction. From Table VII we learn the descent of 

 the Mississippi River from the crossing of the Northern Pacific Eailroad 

 to Saint Paul, and the descent of Red River from the same line northward 

 to the British line; and by bringing together the elevations on the same 

 meridian from the different lines mentioned in these tables and from the 

 Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific lines, we can obtain at least an 

 approximately correct idea of the topography along north and south 

 lines. 



Beginning with the north line along the Northern Pacific road and 

 tracing it westward, we find a somewhat unexpected uniformity of 

 elevation in the timlbered district which extends from Lake Superior 

 westward some fifty or sixty miles beyond (west of) the Mississippi 

 Eiver, and as we move farther westward, although, with one material 

 exception, we find the variation to be gradual and generally ascending, 

 yet we shall notice very marked and striking changes in the character 

 of the country traversed. 



Starting from the surface of Lake Superior at Duluth with an altitude 

 of 600 feet above the sea-level, we rapidly ascend the rugged encircling 

 bluffs, and in a few miles reach a height of 1,280 feet. This we find, by 

 examining Table II, is about the average level of a line across the State 

 of Minnesota at this latitude, until we reach the valley of Red River, 

 when we again descend some 300 feet. From this average the extremes 

 along the railroad-line seldom, if ever, vary more than 100 feet. There 

 is a slight depression in the immediate valley of the Mississippi, as at 

 Brainard and Pillager, but it is certainly much less than we would be 

 led to infer from a comparison of the higher margins of this plain or 

 plateau with the much lower level of Lake Superior on one side and 

 that of Red River Valley on the other. Even this central depression 

 will, in a great measure, disappear if we follow a direct line from Duluth 

 to Moorhead, instead of following the southward curve of the road as it 

 approaches the river, for in moving south it descends proportionally. 

 As we approach the divide between the waters of the Mississippi and 

 Red Rivers, there is an ascent of about 100 feet above the average, and 

 nearly 200 feet above the former river. As a matter of course, the road 



