ELDORADO 91 



of sinking. In diving we would rise to the surface 

 without the least effort. The water was perfectly trans- 

 parent, and any object at the depth of ten or twenty 

 feet was greatly magnified. Shortly after leaving the 

 water one finds himself like Lot's wife, a pillar of 

 salt. There were crude salt works near by, where we 

 were informed that the water yielded 20 per cent, pure 

 salt. 



After leaving the lake our route lay along the valley 

 between the mountain spurs and we camped for the 

 night on a little stream, with plenty of feed for our 

 horses, having made twenty-five miles travel. The 

 distance from Salt Lake City to the edge of the desert 

 is seventy miles. The last night before reaching there 

 we camped near the summit of a low mountain range, 

 and during the night a heavy thunder storm came 

 up and, having no shelter, our blankets became thor- 

 oughly saturated. As we w^ere without fire we made 

 the best of the situation the balance of the night by 

 exercising to keep warm. Upon reaching the summit 

 the next morning the wide, dreary expanse of the great 

 desert lay before us, and Pilot's Peak, our objective 

 point and to which our pack trail led, was plainly dis- 

 tinguished far to the westward. To the north and 

 south was a limitless expanse, without tree or shrub, 

 broken here and there by sand ridges and bare, rocky 

 promontories, like islands rising out of the sea. A 

 vast ,trackless plain, with occasionally extensive salt 

 l)eds caused by the sun's rays. Not a very cheering 

 outlook, but we had always tried to look upon the 

 bright side, believing every cloud had a "silver lining." 



We passed down the western slope and reached the 

 edge of the desert at noon. We unpacked and hobbled 



