216 



PHYSICAL ASPECT 



for long distances, scarcely noticeable except by actual measurement. On the north 

 side, the descent is much more rapid, the middle of the highlands approaching, 

 generally, within twenty-five or thirty miles of Lake Superior, and in some places 

 much nearer. 



These ranges are made up of successive chains of rounded hills or knobs, with an 

 elevation of from thirty to two hundred feet above the intervening valleys. Many 

 of the hills are dome-shaped, and possess great regularity of outline. Most of them, 

 however, are either oblong or irregular and ridge-like, and have an almost constant 

 strike northeast and southwest, though many spurs are given off having various 

 other bearings. Their summits present, almost uniformly, an assemblage of low, 

 dome-shaped elevations, with occasional exposures of trappean and granitic rocks ; 

 the trap ridges presenting, generally, a more rugged and broken outline than the 

 others. 



This description applies to the northern ranges between the waters of Montreal 

 River and those of the Bois Brule. The highlands south of Fond du Lac, in the 

 direction of Lake Pokegoma, differ from those just described, in the almost total 

 absence of any distinctly marked ridges or chains of hills, after leaving the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Lake Superior. After passing the high hills south of the Great 

 Bend of St. Louis River, and which approach it very nearly opposite the Trading- 

 House, eighteen miles above its mouth, the country is undulating but not knobby ; 

 and occasional small prairies, with numerous wet meadows, and tamerack, spruce, 

 and cedar swamps, present themselves in every direction, until the head-waters of 

 Kettle River are reached. This portion of the country resembles, in many respects, 

 that lying along the line separating the first and second divisions, in the neighbour- 

 hood of St. Croix River. It is covered with a great depth of red marl, clays, and 

 drift, based upon red sandstone, which is the only rock to be seen in place 

 between St. Louis River and the head-waters of Kettle River, and that rock is 

 only visible at a few points. In some of the valleys, crystalline boulders are so 

 numerous, that, with little trouble, a person could step from one to another for the 

 distance of half a mile or more. The general elevation along this line is also much 

 less than along any other line of country traversed between the Mississippi and 

 Lake Superior. 



On no other line than the one just mentioned, are the higher lands destitute 

 of a good growth of timber. Between the Bois Brule and Montreal Rivers the 

 ridges support a dense growth of both hard and soft woods, while the marshy 

 valleys and low grounds are covered with tamerack, spruce, and hemlock. So dense 

 is the forest over most of this region, that it is difficult to see from the top of one 

 range to that of another, except Avhere the summits happen to be formed by the 

 protrusion of trappean or granitic rocks. Such points occur sufficiently often, how- 

 ever, to give the observer a knowledge of the general outline of the intervening- 

 country. 



Although this section is, as just stated, covered with vegetation, yet there is 

 much inequality in the soil of the hills, owing to the diversity of rocks from which 

 it has been derived; and this gives rise to considerable inequality of vegetation, 

 some of the ranges being covered with a much heavier and finer growth of timber 



