ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-FIRST AND FORTY-SECOND PARALLELS. 59 
springs and small streams, but the latter seldom extend far into the plains. At the time of 
melting snows there are many small ponds and lakes, but at other seasons the waters are 
absorbed by the soil near the base of the mountains. Grass is found in abundance upon nearly 
every range; but timber is very scarce, a small scattered growth of cedar only being seen upon 
afew ranges. East of the Humboldt mountains, the growth of cedars is more abundant and 
the grass better. The valleys rarely have a width east and west of more than five or ten miles, 
but often have a large extent north and south. They are irregular in form, frequently extend- 
ing around the ends of mountains, or uniting to succeeding valleys by level passages. The 
greater part of the surface of these valleys is merely sprinkled by several varieties of sombre 
artemisia, (wild sage,) presenting the aspect of a dreary waste ; though there are spots more 
thickly covered with this vegetation, yet the soil is seldom half covered with it for a few acres, 
and is nowhere suitable for settlement and cultivation. Immediately west of Great Salt lake 
there is a desert plain of mud, clay, and sand, impregnated with salt, seventy miles in width 
from east to west by its longest line, and forty at a narrower part further south—thirty miles 
of which must be piled for the passage of a railroad across it. 
A railroad may be carried over this series of plains, and around the mountain masses, at 
nearly the general level of the valleys. The route in this manner reaches the foot of the 
Humboldt mountains—a narrow but elevated ridge, containing much snow during most of the 
year—and crosses them by a pass nine miles long, about three of which are occupied by a 
narrow, rocky ravine, above which the road should be carried on the sloping spurs of the 
mountains on the western descent. Elevation of summit, 6,579 feet above the sea. At the 
time when passed, 21st May, snow covered the high peaks above it, and a few drifts extended 
into the ravines down to the level of its summit. 
The descent is now made to the open valley of Humboldt river, which is followed for about 
190 miles. The steepest grade proposed in the pass of Humboldt mountain is eighty-nine feet 
per mile for eight miles, but this can be reduced by gaining distance to any desirable extent. 
The Humboldt river, as described by Colonel Fremont, is formed by two streams rising in 
mountains west of the Great Salt lake—the Humboldt mountains. Its general direction is 
from east to west, coursing among broken ranges of mountains; its length about three hundred 
miles. It is without affluents, and terminates near the foot of the Sierra Nevada in a marshy 
lake. It has a moderate current, is from two to six feet deep in the dry season, and probably 
not fordable anywhere below the junction of the two streams during the melting of the snows. 
The valley varies in width from a few miles to twenty, and, excepting the immediate river- 
banks, is a dry, sandy plain, without grass, wood, or arable soil. Its own immediate valley 
(bottom) is a rich alluvion covered with blue grass, herdsgrass, clover and other nutritious 
grasses, and its course is marked through the plain by a line of willow, serving for fuel. 
Of the three lines from the Humboldt river to the foot of the Sierra Nevada, the best is that 
by the Noble’s Pass road, as it avoids the principal range of mountains crossed on the line 
followed a few miles south. The line followed crosses two ranges of the general character of the 
Basin mountains, and reaches the foot of the Madelin Pass of the Sierra Nevada, on the west 
shore of Mud lake, in a distance of 119 miles, and at an elevation of 4,079 feet above the sea. 
The topographical features of the Great Basin present extraordinary facilities for the construc- 
tion of a railroad across it. By the route followed, the distance is more than 600 miles from 
the debouche of the Timpanogos river to the west shore of Mud lake. 
In this latitude, the Sierra Nevada was found to be a plateau about 5,200 feet above the sea, 
forty miles in width from east to west, enclosed at these limits by low mountains, the sum- 
mits of the passes through which are four and five hundred feet above its surface. The plain 
is covered with irregular spurs, ridges, and isolated peaks, rising a few hundred feet, limiting 
it in a north and south direction sometimes to a space of a few hundred yards, and in others 
to that of ten miles, These spurs, &c., on the eastern portion of the plateau are sparsely 
covered with cedar; on the western, heavily covered with pine, 
