JOHN C. FREMONT. 183 



usual flavor of very excellent common salt, without 

 any foreign taste; but only a little was collected for 

 present use, as there was in it a number of small 

 black insects. 



"Carrying with us the barometer and other in- 

 struments, in the afternoon we ascended to the 

 highest point of the island, a bare, rocky peak, eight 

 hundred feet above the lake. Standing on the 

 summit, we enjoyed an extended view of the lake, 

 enclosed in a basin of rugged mountains, which 

 sometimes left marshy flats and extensive bottoms 

 between them and the shore, and in other places 

 came directly down into the water with bold and 

 precipitous bluffs. Following with our glasses the 

 irregular shores, we searched for some indications 

 of a communication with other bodies of water or 

 the entrance of other rivers; but the distance was 

 so great that we could make out nothing wkh 

 certainty. To the southward, several peninsular 

 mountains, three thousand or four thousand feet 

 high, entered the lake, appearing, so far as the 

 distance and our position enabled us to determine, 

 to be connected by flats and low ridges with the 

 mountains in the rear. These are probably the 

 islands usually indicated on maps of this region as 

 entirely detached from the shore. The season of 

 our operations was when the waters were at their 



