OF THE DISTRICT. 



217 



than others. Still, this inequality is much less than in other sections of country of 

 the same extent, and less than it otherwise would be here, in consequence of the 

 liberal dissemination of the red marls, which are distributed not only in the valleys, 

 but up to the very summits of most of the ranges south of Lake Superior. Except- 

 ing the sections cut down by water-courses, few precipices occur throughout this 

 whole region, and these only among the granitic and trap rocks. 



The valleys between the ridges are mostly narrow, possessing often only suffi- 

 cient width to carry off the drainage of the neighbouring high grounds. Where 

 they are wider, the central part is generally occupied by tamerack swamps, and by 

 drift, and fragments of rock derived from the neighbouring ranges. The smaller 

 valleys, which wind among the chains of low hills which make up the main ranges, 

 are dry, and like the hills are well wooded, have a good soil, and are sufficiently 

 free from boulders to allow of cultivation. 



West of the Bois Brule, and south of the Great Bend of St. Louis River, the val- 

 leys, which are depressed but little below the general level of the country, are 

 occupied, in most localities, by either swamps or natural meadows. Some of these 

 meadows are very extensive, and bear a luxuriant growth of grass, often five or six 

 feet in height. It is coarse, but sweet, and is said to make an excellent hay, being 

 much used as provender for cattle in all the pineries, and in the settled parts of 

 the territory where it grows. The soil of these valleys is generally lacustrine. 

 Many of them present every indication of having been uncovered or drained at a 

 comparatively recent period ; while some of them are evidently in process of drain- 

 age at the present time, and so rapidly, that a large addition to the tillable land of 

 the territory may be safely calculated upon at no very distant date. Should it be- 

 come desirable to do so, the process of drainage might be easily accelerated by art, 

 and at inconsiderable expense. 



A very interesting and important characteristic of the third division, and which 

 it possesses in common with the fourth, is the number of small lakes which abound 

 throughout almost its whole area. The surface of the country is literally studded 

 with them. In some sections it would be impossible to travel five miles, in any 

 direction, without striking a lake. Although, on the eastern and western boun- 

 daries of the District, they extend farther south than the forty-fifth degree of lati- 

 tude, the great body of them is situated north of a line drawn from the mouth of 

 Little Wisconsin River to the Falls of St. Croix River. West of the Bois Brule, 

 they extend from the highlands south of Lake Superior, south and west, to the 

 Mississippi ; and, crossing that river, from near the Falls of St. Anthony to Lake 

 Winibigoshish, form, about the head-waters of the Des Moines, and of the Mankato, 

 Waraju, and Le Sueur, branches of St. Peter's River, the " Undine Region" of 

 Nicollet ; and, further north, the still greater assemblage of lakes which include 

 the sources of the Mississippi and of Red River of the North; and beyond the 

 northern water-shed, in the fourth district, the sources of Big Fork and Little Fork 

 Rivers ; and south of it, those of the western tributaries of the St. Louis River. 



For description, the lakes of the second, third, and fourth districts, may be divided 

 into two classes, or, rather, varieties, and the descriptions will, at the same time, 

 apply to those of the first, and many of those of the fifth district. 



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