PYRAMID LAKE, NEVADA. 505 



PYRAMID LAKE, NEVADA. 



By HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS, Ph.D. 



BERKFXEY, (A I,. 



NOT much more than fifty years ago the Great Basin region, lying 

 between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, was al- 

 most unknown. Previous to 1840, a few daring men had penetrated 

 west of the Rocky Mountains. The route to Oregon had been traversed, 

 and one party had crossed the southern portion of the Great Basin, but 

 the main portion was unexplored. 



The maps made of the country lying west, of the Eocky Mountains 

 previous to the explorations of Fremont are most interesting, as showing 

 the strange conceptions which men had formed of the geographic fea- 

 tures of the region. The great Sierra Nevada range of California is en- 

 tirely absent, and a number of rivers are marked as rising in the Eocky 

 Mountains and flowing west into the Pacific. 



One of these maps was used by Fremont, who first made known the 

 real character of the region, and the journal of his wanderings in this 

 desert waste 1- most interesting reading. Enabled as we are now to 

 cross the deserts in a few hours in comfortable cars, with good maps at 

 hand, and plenty to eat and drink, it is hai'd to place ourselves in the 

 position of the early explorers of a vast and unknown region, where each 

 day the problem o\' food and water has to lie solved anew. 



We owe much to Fremont for his daring explorations in the arid 

 regions of the West. It was during his first expedition that he dis- 

 covered Pyramid Lake, the subject of this sketch, bid in trying to extri- 

 cate himself and his party from the deserts, they nearly perished upon 

 the snowy summits of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 



In the year L843 Fremont conducted an exploring expedition to 

 Oregon. As winter approached he turned southward from The Dalles, 

 expecting to return to Salt Lake by way of Nevada. But upon getting 

 into the deserts and fearing that he would not be able to cross them, he 

 turned westward and. in the very heart of winter, attempted to cross 

 the Sierras into California. This plan was based upon a misconception 

 of the geography; for hi- map showed him no Sierra Nevada, but instead 

 a great river called the Buenaventura, which was supposed to rise in the 

 Eocky Mountains and flow westward into San Francisco Bay. Day 

 alter day as his party became more wearied, and food for the animals 

 became scarcer, he watched for this river, thinking that every stream 

 which they came to must be the one sought, but found invariably that 



