THE IRRIGATION AGE. 119 



summit of the rock by the sight which he would see there. He found 

 nothing to satisfy him, and he gave to the island the name Disappoint- 

 ment. It held the title until the Mormons changed it to Castle Island. 



Fremont went on his way, and the lake again was left to solitude. 



On a Friday morning in 1847 two men rode through a canon close 

 to where Fort Douglas now stands and f r,om the heights of the plateau 

 gazed over the wide expanse of lake and valley below. One of them 

 threw wide his hands, both bared their heads, and the elder of them 

 spoke. 



"The Lord be praised," he said. "He has led us to the promised 

 land." 



The devotees were Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow, Mormon elders, 

 who had left Brigham Young and his pioneer detachment and ridden 

 a day's march ahead to see what was beyond the mountains at their 

 front. Twenty-four hours later a flag was floating from Ensign Peak, 

 the name of Immigrent Canon had been bestowed upon the pass, and 

 the men of Young's detachment were making camp. The following 

 day Brigham Young bathed in the lake and, on emerging from the 

 plunge, gave it the name of Great Salt Lake. Hitherto, except by 

 Bonneville, it had been referred to only as the salt lake. 



The happening which has made the lake next to sacred in the es- 

 timation of the Mormon people was that of the following year, after 

 Brigham Young had gone back to the Mississippi Valley and returned 

 with the rest of the men, the women, and the children. The crops 

 were planted and were coming up when a plague of black crickets de- 

 scended upon the valley. The invading army marched in from the 

 west, a solid phalanx with miles of front. All vegetation disappeared 

 before its advance. In vain the emigrants plowed ditches ahead of 

 the column, pouring into them oil and inflammable brush which they, 

 fired as the head of the cricket army tumbled down the decliv- 

 ities. Millions of the insects died, but the fires burned themselves 

 out, and the undaunted remainder of the ravenous throng trod over 

 their scorched bodies to the green fields beyond. 



At the end of thirty-six hours of conflict, when the settlers were 

 in despair, the flutter of wings was heard in the direction of the lake. 

 In a moment the air was as white as the earth was black, and thous- 

 ands of great gulls were settling down towards the feast spread for 

 them on the ground. According to the Mormon chronicles the gulls 

 ate until their crops protruded, then disgorged the dead insects, and 

 began over again. The winged gluttons saved the crops, eating the 

 last of the crickets at the close of the second day. From that day to 

 this it has been a criminal offense to slay a gull, and in consequence 

 the birds have become exceedingly tame, while the lake has kept the 

 credit of being the abiding place of the winged saviors. 



Bird life abounds about the shores of the Great Salt Lake, includ- 

 ing an abundance of wild geese and swan, which, however, have no 



