ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 69 



haggard from overwrought fecUngs, and was probably effectually 

 cured of a propensity for meddling with grizzly bears. 



A small striped rattlesnake is abundant on these plains : — it is 

 a different species from our common one at home, but is equally 

 malisnant and venomous. The horses are often startled by them, 

 and dart aside with intuitive fear when their note of warning is 

 sounded in the path. 



12i/t. — The plains of the Sweet-water at this point, — latitude 

 43° 6', longitude 110° 30', — are covered with little salt pools, 

 the edo-es of which are encrusted with alkaline efflorescences, look- 

 ing like borders of snow. The rocks in the vicinity are a loose, 

 fine-grained sandstone, the strata nearly horizontal, and no 

 organic remains have been discovered. We have still a view of 

 the lofty Wind-river mountains on our right hand, and they 

 have for some days served as a guide to determine our course. 

 On the plain, we passed several huge rhomboidal masses of rock, 

 standing alone, and looking, at a little distance, like houses with 

 chimneys. The freaks of nature, as they are called, have often 

 astonished us since we have been journeying in the wilderness. 

 We have seen, moddled without art, representations of almost 

 all the most stupendous works of man ; and how do the loftiest 

 and most perfect creations of his wisdom and ingenuity sink into 

 insignificance by the comparison. Noble castles, with turrets, 

 embrazures, and loop holes, with the drawbridge in front, and the 

 moat surrounding it : behind, the humble cottages of the subser- 

 vient peasantry, and all the varied concomitants of such a scene, 

 are so strikingly evident to the view, that it requires but little 

 stretch of fancy to imagine that a race of antediluvian giants may 

 here have swayed their iron sceptre, and left behind the 

 crumbling palace and the tower, to tell of their departed glory. 



On the 14th, we left the Sweet- water, and proceeded in a 

 south-westerly direction to Sandy river, a branch of the Colorado 

 of the west. We arrived here at about 9 o'clock in the evening. 



