MIN'NESO'TA (Indian. sky-tinted water). One of the North-Central States of the American Union. It lies around the head waters of the Mississippi Piver, between 30' and 25' north lotitude, and between 29' and 5' west longitude. It is hounded on the north by the Canadian provinces of On tario and on the cast by Lake Supe rior and the State of Wisconsin. on the south by Iowa, and Uri the west by the Dakotas. It has an extreme length north and south of about 400 miles, and east and west of 380 miles. averaging 2-10 miles in width. and comprising an area of 83.365 square miles. of which 4160 square miles are water. it ranks tenth in size among the States.
TorocatAenY. Northern :Minnesota is an ex tension of the Laurentian highlands—ancient rocks smoothed down to moderate relief. The sur face here is rolling, is densely covered with pine forests. except in the western part, aml abounds in lakes and swamps. Southern Minnesota is largely prairie, wide expanses of gently rolling. grassy. and generally treeless: plains of 1(molder c•lay. belted with morains. The greater part of the surface is young. the plains are as yet un dissected. and lakes still remain in the moraines. In the southeastern and southwestern corners of the State the old surface was not covered over by the later Wisconsin glacial sheet, and here we find the surface has weathered smooth and the lakes have disappeari.d. The surface of the State has as its central feature, in the north central part. an elevated plateau, which rises 1750 feet ?hove the level of the sea. From this plateau the country slopes otT north, south, east. and west, reaching, however. 2200 feet in the northeast in the Mesabi Mountains north of Lake Superior. and after a considerable decline rising again in the southwest corner of the State to 1500 feet in the Coteau des Prairies. The average elevation is 1200 feet, or 000 feet above the level of Lake Superior. The surface is unbroken by any sudden uplifts. and the slope from the central plateau in each direction is very gradual. The lowest portions of the State are the region around the head of Lake Superior, and the southeast section of the State where the land falls to an elevaC of about 0110 feet.
The rivers of Minnesota radiate in all direc tions the central plateau mentioned above.
The two principal drainage systems are those of the Mississippi and the Red River of the North. The :Mississippi rises in the ltascan lake group. and with its two large tributaries, the Saint Croix on the eastern boundary, and the :Minnesota in the west. drains more than one half the State. The Red River of the North, which drains the western slope. flows northward on the western boundary through a flat lacustrine basin to Lake Winnipeg. The northern and north eastern slopes are small in area and drained by short streams flowing into the Rainy River and Take system on the northern boundary, and into Lake Superior. The largest of these streams, is the Saint Lollis River. Which !lows into the west ern extremity of Lake Superior. The Mississippi River alone is used for n:n•igation; the Minne sota and the IZed River are• reported 'navigable,' but are little used. The direction of the rivers, as well as the position and formation of the in numerable lakes dotting the surface of the State. have been determined by glacial action. In the north the lakes are usually cut out of the old rock and display bold tortuous shores. to south the lakes are often broad and shallow. Three-fourths of the lakes of the State are those the untrained hollows in the morainal Which corer tile greater portion of the surface of the State: others. such as Lakes Pepin. Traverse, and Big Stone. are river expan The lakes vary ill sire from mere ponds up to Red Lake, with an area of 3I0 The other more important lakes are i.eee•h and in the plateau region: 31111e Lae: and Nlinnotonka, a popular sti Miller resort for Alinneapolis and Saint Paul.
The most important laenstrine feature of :Minnesota is the extinct Lake Agassiz. An inci dent in the recession of the Pleistocene ice was the pouting; of the marginal drainage of the ice sheet in the valley of the Red River as fast as it was utwovered by the melting ice. A great lake was formed which has been called Lake Agassiz. At its largest stage it has a maximum width of nearly 700 miles, and drained through the Minnesota River into the Gulf of Mexico. On the disappearance of the ice. and the draining out of Lake Agassiz by the Nelson River, its bed was left as a level alluvial plain.