THE DIVIDING PLATEAU. 



261 



two yards from the fire. The trail continued through a very 

 beautiful rolling plateau, with clumps of wood here and 

 there, and lakelets between the hills. Camped at noon near 

 the edge of the southern slope, which however does not 

 send water into the Gulf of Mexico except during floods, 

 when a communication is established between Otter Tail 

 Lake and Leaf Lake. Our course lay in the valley of 

 Otter Tail Eiver, a tributary of Otter Tail Lake from 

 which Eed Eiver takes its rise. The direction of this 

 stream is due south, and although our route descended 

 rapidly towards the Mississippi, yet we were still in the 

 valley of a river flowing into Hudson's Bay. The dis- 

 tribution of the drift on this dividing ridge frequently 

 determines the course of a stream in a direction diame- 

 trically opposite to the general trend of the surface. 

 Hauteur de Terre Eiver, or the upper part of Otter Tail 

 Eiver and Eed Eye Eiver, for instance, flow for a distance 

 of forty miles nearly parallel to one another, in a general 

 direction to the S.S.E., but one flows into Otter Tail Lake 

 and thence into Hudson's Bay, the other is an affluent of 

 Crow Wing Eiver, which joins the Mississippi near Fort 

 Eipley. 



Even on the summit of the southern slope the aspect 

 of the country begins to change, and prettily wooded 

 lakes become numerous, affording in summer a most 

 delightful variety of scenery. The soil, however, is 

 light, and not favourable for cultivation. Camped at 

 Forty-fourth Lake, about 110 miles from Crow Wing. 



The country passed through on the 20th was extremely 

 beautiful, the soil good, timber and prairie land being distri- 

 buted in about equal quantities. The grackle in countless 

 numbers were seen passing south ; the lakes were alive 

 with ducks, geese, and several other kinds of water fowl, 



s 3 



