TTater of the Dead Sea, 321 



total absence of every approach to pasture suitable for cattle 

 over extensive districts called the Salt Deserts, south of the 

 Great Salt Lake, and which, according to the description of 

 travellers, present the most appalling spectacles of great 

 tracts of country totally destitute of life that the world aiFords. 

 They truly deserve the name of the Dead Deserts. 



Mr Bryant* draws the following picture of this region, to 

 which I am particularly anxious to direct the reader's atten- 

 tion, as it represents scenes quite as desolate as those which, 

 in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, have been pourtrayed 

 by the pencils of Mr Warburton and the author of Eothen. 



" f Descending into the plain or valley before us, we took a north- 

 west course across it, striking Captain Fremont's trail of last year, 

 after we had commenced the ascent of the slope on the western 

 side. The breadth of this valley at this point, from the base of one 

 range of mountains to the other, is about twenty miles. Large por- 

 tions of it are covered with a saline efflorescence of a snowy white- 

 ness. The only vegetation is the wild sage ; and this is parched and 

 shrivelled by the extreme drought. Not a solitary flower or green 

 plant has exhibited itself. In our march, we crossed and passed 

 several deep ravines and chasms, ploughed by the waters from the 

 mountains during the melting of the snows, or hollowed out by the 

 action of the winds. Not a living object has been seen during our 

 day^s march. 



•' We encamped about two o'clock p.m. There were a few dwarf 

 cedars in our vicinity, and scattered branches of dead grass. In a 

 ravine near us the sand is moist, and by making an excavation, we 

 obtained a scant supply of water, impregnated with salt and sulphur. 

 A dense smoky vapour Jills the valley, and conceals the summits of 

 the distant mountains. The sun shining through this dispenses a 

 lurid light, colouring the bare and barren desert with a more dis- 

 mal and gloomy hue. 



* * ^ * * Mft 



" I We passed over this ridge through a narrow gap, the walls of 

 which are perpendicular and composed of the same dark scoriaceous 

 materials as the debris strewed around. From the western terminus 

 of this ominous looking passage, we had a view of the dark desert 

 plain before us, which, as far as the eye could penetrate, was of a 

 snowy whiteness, and resembled a scene of wintry frosts and icy 

 desolation. Not a shrub or object of any kind rose above the sur- 

 face for the eye to rest upon. The hiatus in the animal and vege- 



* What 1 saw in California, being the journal of a tour in 1846 and 47, bj 

 Edwin Bryant, Esq. 



t Page 145. | Page 149. 



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