210 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



ascending the bluffs on the right, passes over an arid 

 plain diversified with immense piles of rocks, deep 

 ravines and chasms, and presenting a wide-spread 

 sterility and desolation, for the distance of forty 

 miles. Water is to be obtained in very small quanti- 

 ties and at few places on this part of the trail, and, 

 therefore a scarcity should be provided for before 

 leaving the Platte. At the end of that distance, the 

 trail descends into a small valley, where spring water 

 can be obtained and some refreshing shade. Ascend- 

 ing from this valley, the trail gradually ascends to 

 the summit of a dividing ridge, from which a view of the 

 Sweetwater River Mountains can be obtained. De- 

 scending from the ridge, a small stream, the grassy 

 banks of which serve for an encampment, is soon 

 reached. Farther on is a well-known landmark among 

 the mountains, called Independence Rock. It is an 

 isolated elevation, composed of masses of rock, about 

 one hundred feet in height, and a mile in circum- 

 ference, standing near the northern bend of the Sweet- 

 water River, and between the ranges of mountains 

 which border the valley of that stream. 



The trail proceeds up the Sweetwater River, and 

 passes a remarkable fissure in the Rocky Mountain 

 wall, which is called the Devil's Gate. The fissure is 

 about thirty feet in breadth, and the perpendicular 

 walls on each side of the channel of the stream which 

 flows through it, are nearly three hundred feet high. 

 The trail leaves the river about twelve miles from 

 where it first strikes it, and then returns to it after 

 traversing about sixteen miles. It again diverges from 

 the river and crosses a broken and arid plain, which 

 presents but few signs of vegetation. Passing through 

 a gap between two ranges of granite mountains, the 



