Sunday, November 05, 2006

You call this flat?


Those who weren't raised on the prairies complain about the flatness of the prairies. This photo shows part of Saskatchewan that is particularly flat. We took this photo through the windshield of our car as we were heading to Eston. During this trip through part of central Saskatchewan, whenever we spotted an elevator in the distance we would check the odometer to see how far away the elevators were. The furthest ones were 15 kms ahead! Now that is flat. The joke about watching your pet dog run away for days is based on this notion of flatness. Considering that the prairies were once a giant sea bottom helps explain the flatness of the terrain. The gulleys and pockets of trees are the left-overs of the receding glaciers during the ice age. If you're ever in Regina there's an interesting section in the Royal Saskatchewan Musuem that shows the history of the prairies back to the ice age. http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/gallery/life_sciences/life_sciences_gallery.shtml

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