290 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



Stations. 



Distance from 

 Lake Superior. 



Height above the 

 sea. 



Mouth of Nameukan River 



Grand Falls Portage 



Lake Nanieukaa 



Rainy Lake 



Manitou Rapids 



Lake of the Woods 



ALONG WINNIPEG RIVER TO LAKE Vi^NNIPEG 



Grande D6charge 



Del'ile Portage 



Roche Brulde Portage 



Otter Falls 



Bonnet Lake 



Big Bonnet Portage 



Fort Alexander 



Lake Winnipeg . . 



Miles. 

 233 

 245 

 257 

 301 

 336 

 453 



487 

 510 

 544 

 500 

 585 

 590 

 614 

 657 



Feet 

 1,117 

 1,082 

 1,044 

 1,035 

 996 

 977 



950 



901 

 843 

 810 

 744 

 689 

 628 

 628 



I regret that this line cannot be extended eastward direct from Eainy 

 Lake to Lake Superior 5 bnt I have been unable to find any record, if 

 one was ever made. Yet from this list, imperfect as it is, we learn some 

 important facts, among which the following may be mentioned as of 

 special interest in the present examination : That the divide between 

 Lake Superior and Eainy Lake, which here is directed northeast, main- 

 tains an elevation equal to that immediately west of Duluth. It is 

 true that, at the point where Mr. Hind struck the channel, the elevation 

 was a little less than that immediately back of Duluth, but the rest of 

 the table as given in his work, but not quoted here, shows that at a 

 short distance northeast of that point the altitude is 1,300 to 1,400 feet 

 above the sea. And, as Owen asserts in his Geological Survey of Wis- 

 consin, Iowa, and Minnesota, the bordering rim of the immediate Lake 

 Superior Basin increases in height toward the northeast. 



A second fact we learn from this list is that the slope of the Winni- 

 peg Basin along this line is tolerably rapid toward the northwest, reach- 

 ing at Lake Winnipeg a level only 28 feet above that of Lake Sui)erior. 

 It shows also that Rainy Lake is fully 600 feet lower than the extreme 

 source of the Mississippi and the Lake of the Woods 700 feet lower. 



The elevation of Eed Lake may have been ascertained, but if it has 

 I have been unable to find the record ; yet I think we have good reason 

 to infer that it is less than that given for the source of the Mississippi. 

 It is drained into Eed Eiver at a point where the elevation is only about 

 850 feet above the sea ; the length of Eed Lake Eiver, by w^hich its 

 waters are carried off, is probably not more than one hundred miles, 

 twenty-five or thirty of which are through the remarkably flat valley 

 of Eed Eiver, and, so far as I can learn, the rest is without any con- 

 siderable falls. I allude thus particularly to the elevation of this lake 

 as it will assist us in determining the height of the rim of the Missis- 

 sippi Basin on the northwest, and the character of the descent to the 

 Eed River Basin in that direction. B3" bringing together these facts we 

 are enabled to form a tolerably correct idea of the configuration and ele- 

 vation of the northern, northeastern, and northwestern boundary of 

 the plateau of the Upper Mississippi Basin. 



The line of th^ Saint Paul and Pacific Eailroad to Breckenridge, 



