138 IN THE OLD WEST 



his neck and looking upwards, puffed it into the 

 air. He then blew another puff towards the four 

 points of the compass, and emptying the pipe 

 into his hand, cast the consecrated contents into 

 the spring, saying a few Indian " medicine " 

 words of cabalistic import. Having performed 

 the ceremony to his satisfaction, he returned to 

 the fire, smoked a pipe on his own hook, and 

 turned into his buffalo-robe, conscious of having 

 done a most important duty. 



In the course of their trapping expedition, and 

 accompanied by Rube, who knew the country well, 

 they passed near the Great Salt Lake, a vast in- 

 land sea, whose salitrose waters cover an extent 

 of upwards of one hundred and forty miles in 

 length, by eighty in breadth. Fed by several 

 streams, of which the Big Bear River is the most 

 considerable, this lake presents the curious phe- 

 nomenon of a vast body of water without any 

 known outlet. According to the trappers, an is- 

 land, from which rises a chain of lofty mountains, 

 nearly divides the north-western portion of the 

 lake, whilst a smaller one, within twelve miles of 

 the northern shore, rises six hundred feet from the 

 level of the water. Rube declared to his compan- 

 ions that the larger island was known by the In- 

 dians to be inhabited by a race of giants, with 

 whom no communication had ever been held by 

 mortal man; and but for the casual wafting to 

 the shores of the lake of logs of gigantic trees, 



