lake; but unless selected and developed with discrimination and scientific judgment the chances are that the property chosen may not develop into a permanent and productive mine. It is our confident belief, however, that the proper forces have been in operation at several points around Rainy lake to produce auriferous quartz lodes of a richness that will compare favorably with those of many other prosperous mining districts. If the development of operations now in progress shall demonstrate the existence of extensive deposits, as we believe will be the case, the future of the district for gold mining is assured. It is even now accessible at moderate cost; fuel, water and water power are abundant, and labor cheap. Modern methods have made the cost of exploitation, even of refractory ores, much less than it was only a few years ago. With the large bodies of low grade ore which are destined to furnish the greater part of the world's output of precious metals in the future, the cost of mines and mills as advantageously situated with reference to wood and water as those of Rainy lake, have been estimated at two dollars a ton for mining and three dollars a ton for barrel chlorination or for treatment by the cyanide process of ores adapted to it, and from which ninety per cent of the metal can be saved. Where practically all the gold can be extracted by amalgamation, as at present at Rainy lake, there should be a good profit on five dollar ore in permanent veins which have an average width of five feet or more. The surprising adaptability of the soil and climate of the Rainy River valley for agriculture, together with its stores of timber for lumber and. paper manufacture and its large water power, instil in us the conviction that northern Minnesota is an empire by itself, destined in the near future to become the home of a large and prosperous community engaged in the occupations of farming and manufacturing.* From Rainy lake westward to Lake of the Woods, a distance of eighty miles, the boundary is formed by the Rainy river. The characters of this river valley stand in strong contrast with those of the rocky lake country to the east. At the western end of Rainy lake, where is its outlet, the beginning of the Rainy river, the surface of rocky knolls suddenly gives way to a plain of clays, through which the underlying rock seldom emerges. The change in the flora is as striking as that in the land surface; to the east the land is covered by evergreen forests, boreal in aspect, while to the west hardwood timber predominates and the whole flora is more temperate in its character. This plain of clays, heavily timbered, stretches westward to and beyond the Red river, the flat monotony of its surface being broken only by the steep-sided shallow trenches cut into it by the Rainy river and its tributaries. For agricultural purposes the soil of this river valley is unsurpassed by any in the state. The experiences of settlers on the Canadian side of the river for several years have demonstrated conclusively the excellency of this land for farming purposes. Already settlers are coming in on the Minnesota side, *Op. cit., pp. 104, 105. but there are still thousands of acres of this land which are as yet unoccupied. Through this district runs a natural highway, the Rainy river, a stream 600 to 1,200 feet in width and navigable for steamers of considerable size. Two and a half miles west of Rainy lake the river plunges over a rocky ledge of twenty-one to twenty-four and a half feet, the height of the fall depending on the stage of water. It is estimated that at this place the available water power equals 30,000 horse power on the average, while the minimum is about 20,000 horse power. It is thus seen to much exceed the next largest water power in the state, that at the Falls of St. Anthony. The mineral wealth, the fertile soil, the timber and the large water power destine this region to develop into one of the most prosperous sections of the state. In closing this rambling sketch of only a few of the features of the northern boundary of Minnesota, the speaker desires to recommend this region to the notice of those who are contemplating an outing for pleasure or for health. Along the whole boundary there is a good canoe route, and traveling is easy and enjoyable. A trip of two or three weeks' time is amply sufficient to travel the whole length of the boundary from lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods, and the expenses of such a trip are comparatively slight. The larger game, such as bear, caribou and moose, have not been entirely driven out, and smaller game is abundant, while the lakes teem with whitefish, pickerel, wall-eyed pike, bass and the lake or salmon trout. The numbers of crystal lakes, with their rocky shores and evergreen covered islands and hills, render this district, in scenic beauty and picturesqueness, the superior of any other part of the state, and the peer of any of the lake districts of America. THE SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY. ADDRESS BEFORE THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, IN THE HIGH The Red River of the North, so named to distinguish it from the Red river of Louisiana, flows through an exceedingly flat plain, which descends imperceptibly northward, as also from each side to its central line. Along the axial depression the river has cut a channel twenty to sixty feet deep. It is bordered by only few and narrow areas of bottomland, instead of which its banks usually rise steeply on one side, and by moderate slopes on the other, to the broad valley plain which thence reaches nearly level ten to twenty-five miles from the river. Its tributaries cross the plain in similar channels, which, as also the Red river, have occasional gullies connected with them, dry through most of the year, varying from a few hundred feet to a mile or more in length. Between the drainage lines areas often five to fifteen miles wide remain unmarked by any watercourses. The highest portions of these tracts are commonly from two to five feet above the lowest. This vast plain, twenty-five to fifty miles wide and 300 miles long, lying half in Minnesota and half in North Dakota, thence continuing into Manitoba and so stretching from Lake Traverse and Breckenridge north to Lake Winnipeg, is the widely famed Red River Valley. The material of the lower part of the valley plain, shown in the banks of the Red river and reaching usually five to fifteen miles from it, is fine clayey silt, horizontally stratified; but at its south end, in Traverse county and the south half of Wilkin county, Minnesota, and upon large areas of each side of this plain, it is mainly unstratified boulder clay, which differs from the rolling or undulating till of the adjoining region only in having its surface nearly flat. Both these formations are almost impervious to water, which, therefore, in the rainy season fills their shallow depressions, but none of these are so deep as to form permanent lakes. Even sloughs which continue marshy through the summer are infrequent, but where they do occur, as on some of the streams tributary to the Red river, they cover large areas, sometimes several miles in extent. In crossing this almos: perfectly level valley on clear days, the higher land at its sides, and the groves along its rivers, are first seen in the distance as if their upper edges were raised a little above the horizon, with a very narrow strip of sky below. The first appearance of the treetops thus somewhat resembles that of dense flocks of birds flying very low several miles away. By rising a few feet, as from the ground to a wagon, or by nearer approach, the outlines become clearly defined as a grove, with a mere line of sky beneath it. Besides this mirage, the traveler is also reminded, in the same manner as at sea, that the earth is round. The surface of the plain is seen only for a distance of three or four miles; houses and grain stacks have their tops visible first, after which, in approaching, they gradually come into full view; and the highlands, ten or fifteen miles away, forming the side of the valley, apparently lie beyond a wide depression, like a distant high coast. On all the area drained by the Red river in Minnesota the glacial drift is so thick that no exposures of the underlying rocks have been found. The depth of the drift here is nearly the same as its average throughout the western half of this state, or from 100 to 250 feet. The prominent topographic features of all this region are doubtless due to the form of the underlying rock surface, upon which the drift is spread in a sheet of somewhat uniform thickness. Subaerial denudation and stream erosion, during the Tertiary era and the early part of Quaternary time, preceding the Ice age, had sculptured this broad and flat valley trough and the inclosing uplands which on each side gradually rise 200 to 500 feet above the valley. LAKE AGASSIZ. As soon as the departing ice-sheet, which had enveloped the northern United States and British America during the Glacial period, in its melting off the land from south to north, receded beyond the water-shed dividing the basin of the Minnesota river from that of the Red river, a lake, fed by the glacial melting, stood at the foot of the ice fields, and extended northward as they withdrew along the valley of the Red river to Lake Winnipeg, filling this valley and its branches to the height of the lowest point over which an outlet could be found. Until the ice barrier was melted upon the area now crossed by the Nelson river, thereby draining this glacial lake, its outlet was along the present course of the Minnesota river. At first its overflow was upon the nearly level undulating surface of the drift, 1,100 to 1,125 feet above the sea, at the west side of Traverse and Big Stone counties; but in process of time this cut a channel here, called Brown's valley, 100 to 150 feet deep and about a mile wide, the highest point of which, on the present water divide between the Mississippi and Nelson river basins is 975 feet above the sea level. From this outlet the Red river valley plain extends 315 miles north to Lake Winnipeg, which is 710 feet above the sea. Along this entire distance there is a very uniform continuous descent of a little less than one foot per mile. The farmers and other residents of this fertile plain are well aware that they live on the area once occupied by a great lake: for its beaches, having the form of smoothly rounded ridges of gravel and sand, a few feet high, with a width of several rods, are observable extending horizontally long distances upon each of the slopes which rise east and west of the valley plain. Hundreds of farmers have located their buildings on these beach ridges as the most dry and sightly spots on their land, affording opportunity for perfectly drained cellars even in the most wet spring seasons, and also yielding to wells, dug through this sand and gravel, better water than is usually obtainable in wells on the adjacent clay areas. While each of these farmers, in fact everyone living in the Red River Valley, recognizes that it is an old lake bed, few probably know that it has become for this reason a district of special interest to geologists, who have traced and mapped its upper shore along a distance of about 800 miles. |