HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 211 



first view of the Wind River Mountains is obtained. 

 The trail then proceeds through a narrow valley- 

 several miles in length, the surface of which is white 

 with an alkaline efflorescence, and then returns to the 

 Sweetwater River. Continuing up the valley of the 

 Sweetwater, occasionally leaving the bank of the 

 stream and passing over the rolling and barren table- 

 lands, it crosses two small creeks which present good 

 places for encampment. Several miles farther on, the 

 trail crosses the Sweetwater River, and then leaves it 

 finally, making a gradual ascent to the South Pass of 

 the Rocky Mountains, or the dividing ridge which 

 separate the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. 



After the summit of the ridge is reached, the trail 

 passes two or three miles over a level surface, and 

 then descends to the spring, well known to emigrants 

 as the "Pacific Spring." The water from this spring 

 is emptied into the Colorado River of the West, which 

 river empties into the Gulf of California. This Pacific 

 Spring is two miles west of the South Pass, and nine 

 hundred and eighty-three miles from Independence, 

 Missouri. 



From the Pacific Spring, the trail passes over an 

 arid, undulating plain, in a west-by-north course, for 

 about twenty-eight miles, when the " Little Sandy" 

 River, a branch of the Green or Colorado River, pre- 

 sents itself, and furnishes the first water after leaving 

 Pacific Spring. From the Little Sandy River, the 

 trail passes over a plain of white sand or clay, and 

 within twelve miles reaches the Big Sandy River, and 

 passes along it for about eighteen miles, and then 

 strikes off and crosses the Green River, or Colorado 

 of the West. This river is shallow and only about 

 seventy yards broad. The trail then continues down 



