GRANDUEK AND LOTEUNESa ^66 



W the flutterings of countless water-fowk which beskinuned the cryital 

 blue or rode upon its surface. 



No sound disturbed the stillness of its solitude, save that of my own 

 footsteps Gommingling with the incessant chatter of aquatic birds. In 

 solemn grandeur it lay before the eye a desert of waters, bounded upon 

 three sides by the curving horizon, while from the fourth a beautiful ex- 

 panse of verdancy smiled upon its solitude. 



The island with its lone mountain, of which I hav^e spoken in a former 

 chapter, arose in full view, apparently a short distance to the southwest. 

 It was a grand and imposing spectacle, and I much regretted the impossi- 

 bihty of reaching it. Its giant piles of naked rock and sun-baked clay, 

 seemed scanning the surroimding waves, to smile upon their soft blandish- 

 ments or frown at their rudeness. 



But the Island, the Lake, and the country contiguous, have been fully 

 described in former pages, which of right precludes a further notice at thia 

 time. 



On resummg our course we continued up Bear river to the famous min- 

 eral springs, — thence bearing a northwesterly direction, we arrived at Fort 

 Hall late in the afternoon of Nov. 9th. 



The route from Uintah to this point presents many interesting localitiea 

 Bome of which call for more than a mere passing notice. That situate 

 upon Green river, known as Brown's-hole,* coming first in order, seems 

 to assert a merited precedence. 



Descending by a steep, difiicult pass from the west, fifty miles north of 

 Ashley's Fork, the traveller is ushered into a beautiful valley, some fifteen 

 miles long by ten broad, shut in upon all sides by impassable mountains 



* This locality has received the soubriquet of Brown's-hole from the following cir- 

 gumstance : 



Some six or seven years since, a tripj)er, by the name of Brown, came to it in the 

 fall season for the purpose of hunting in its vicinity. During his stay a fall of snow 

 closed the passes so eflectually, iie was forced to remain till the succeeding spring 

 before he could escape from his lonely prison. 



ft was formerly a favorite resort for ih« ynake Indians, on account of its exhaust- 

 less stores of game and wild fruits, an well as its seciuily from the approach of en©. 

 Bues. 



Note.— Taking latitude 42° north as the northern boundary between Oregon and 

 California, these inte reining regions of country are embraced withir; the limits of the lat- 

 ter; but taking the head-waters of rlie Arkansas as the true point, and thence, by a 

 Une running due west to the Pacific, nearly tlie whole of it will be found within the 

 United States. 



Tha treaty with Spain in 1819, defining this boundary, wliich was subsequently 

 confirmed by Mexico, after noting Red river as the northern boundary of its eaatem 

 provuices, to longitude 100° west from Greenwich, and thence north to the Arkansas, 

 uses the following words : 



" Thence, ioliov»ing the course of the south bank of the Arkansas to its BocacK, 

 in latitude 'i2« north, thence by that parallel of latitude to the South Sea." 



If the source of the Arkansas, by its south bank, is in lat. 42*' north, then the ma^ 

 ter of boundary' admits of no question; but if it Ls not in that parallel of latitude, 

 itould the latter be regarded as the true boundary, when it is evident, from the worda 

 ^f the treaty that the source of the Arkansas by its south bank, was the int«nda4 



