64 WINTER SCENE AMONG THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



but is generally much less. The largest lake found on it is 

 4200 feet above the level of the sea, and is connected with 

 the Salt Lake of Utah. The mean elevation of the plain is 

 about GOOO feet above the sea. A mountain-chain runs 

 across it, and through it flows the large Colorado River, amidst 

 gorges of the most picturesque magnificence. 



If the scenes we have described are stern and forbidding in 

 "summer, how much more so are they in winter, when icy 

 blasts blow through the canons, and masses of snow cover 

 the ground. From one of the outer spurs on the east, let us 

 take a glance over the region. Behind us rises the chain of 

 the Rocky Mountains, the whole intermediate country, as well 

 as the mountains themselves, except where the precipitous 

 rocks forbid it, being covered thickly with snow. Rugged 

 peaks and ridges, snow-clad and covered with pines, and deep 

 gorges filled with broken rocks, everywhere meet the eye. 

 To the east, the mountains gradually smooth away into high 

 spurs and broken ground, till they join the wide-spreading 

 plains, generally stretching far as the eye can reach, and hun- 

 dreds of miles beyond— a sea of barrenness, vast and dismal. 

 A hurricane blows clouds of white snowy dust across the 

 desert, resemblino; the smoke of bonfires, roarinij: and ravino- 

 through the pines on the mountain-top, filling the air with 

 snow and broken branches, and piling it in huge drifts 

 against the trees. 



The perfect solitude of this vast wilderness is appalling. 

 From our lofty post on the mountain-top, we obtain a view 

 over the rugged and chaotic masses of the stupendous chain, 

 and the vast deserts which stretch away far from its eastern 

 base ; while on all sides are broken ridges and chasms and 

 ravines, with masses of piled-up rocks and uprooted trees, 



