23« IN THE OLD WEST 



different portions of this deserted tract. In the 

 Grand Basin, it is reported, neither human nor 

 animal life can be supported. No oasis cheers 

 the wanderer in the unbroken solitude of the vast 

 wilderness. More than once the lone trapper has 

 penetrated with hardy enterprise into the salt 

 plains of the basin, but no signs of beaver or fur- 

 bearing animal rewarded the attempt. The 

 ground is scantily covered with coarse unwhole- 

 some grass that mules and horses refuse to eat; 

 and the water of the springs, impregnated with 

 the impurities of the soil through which it perco- 

 lates, affords but nauseating draughts to the 

 thirsty traveler. 



In passing from the more fertile uplands to the 

 lower plains, as they descended the streams, the 

 timber on their banks became scarcer, and the 

 groves more scattered. The rich buffalo or 

 grama grass was exchanged for a coarser species, 

 on which the hard-worked animals soon grew poor 

 and weak. The thickets of plum and cherry, of 

 box-elder and quaking-ash, which had hitherto 

 fringed the creeks, and where the deer and bear 

 loved to resort — the former to browse on the 

 leaves and tender shoots, the latter to de- 

 vour the fruit — now entirely disappeared, 

 and the only shrub seen was the eternal sage- 

 bush, which flourishes ever3rwhere in the west- 

 ern regions in uncongenial soils where other 

 vegetation refuses to grow. The visible change 



