182 JOHN C. FKEMONT. 



as there was an abundance of drift-wood along the 

 shore, it offered us a pleasant encampment. We 

 did not suffer our fragile boat to touch the sharp 

 rocks, but, getting overboard, discharged the bag- 

 gage, and, lifting it gently out of the water, carried 

 it to the upper part of the beach, which was com- 

 posed of very small fragments of rock. 



"Among the successive banks of the beach, formed 

 by the action of the waves, our attention, as we 

 approached the island, had been attracted by one, 

 ten to twenty feet in breadth, of a dark-brown color. 

 Being more closely examined, this was found to be 

 composed, to the depth of seven or eight and twelve 

 inches, entirely of the larvae of insects, or, in com- 

 mon language, of the skins of worms, about the 

 size of a grain of oats, which had been washed up 

 by the waters of the lake. 



"The cliffs and masses of rock along the shore 

 were whitened by an incrustation of salt where the 

 waves dashed up against them ; and the evaporating 

 water, which had been left in holes and hollows on 

 the surface of the rocks, was covered with a crust 

 of salt about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. 

 It appeared strange that, in the midst of this grand 

 reservoir, one of our greatest wants lately had been 

 salt. Exposed to be more perfectly dried in the 

 sun, this became very white and fine, having the 



