8 
* 
Fort Prince of Wales in the early days. 
is a region of elevations in general between 1,300 and 1,400 feet, 
underlain by Cretaceous shales, and is known as the ‘second 
prairie steppe'. It is separated from the lower first prairie steppe 
to the east by the Manitoba Escarpment, a chain of hills and low 
mountains trending in a north-northwesterly direction. These are 
Pembina Mountain, Tiger Hills, Riding Mountain, Duck Mountain, 
and Porcupine Mountain, with a continuation into central eastern 
Saskatchewan known as the Pasquia Hills.” 
Because of intense erosion, rocks of Tertiary age occur in 
Manitoba only, so far as known, on Turtle Mountain, an outlier of 
the extensive Tertiary deposits of southern Saskatchewan. The 
Missouri Coteau, Wood Mountain, and Cypress Hills are prominent 
features of this third or western prairie steppe. 
The topography of the province, of which the highest eleva- 
tion is the 2,727-foot peak Baldy of Duck Mountain, has been 
influenced not only by the character of the bedrock but also by 
glacial and postglacial phenomena. Upon the gradual recession 
of the Wisconsin ice-sheet following the Pleistocene glaciation, 
a large body of fresh water was left covering the entire Manitoba 
