80 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



grass, with a lovely little stream running through the midst, high 

 hills, capped with shapely cedars on two sides, and on the others 

 an immense plain, with snow clad mountains in the distance. 

 This being a memorable day, the liquor kegs were opened, and 

 the men allowed an abundance. We, therefore, soon had a 

 renewal of the coarse and brutal scenes of the rendezvous. 

 Some of the bacchanals called for a volley in honor of the day, 

 and in obedience to the order, some twenty or thirty " happy" 

 ones reeled into line, with their muzzles directed to every point 

 of the compass, and when the word " fire" was given, we who 

 were not " happy" had to lie flat upon the ground to avoid the 

 bullets which were careering through the camp. 



In this little stream, the trout are more abundant than we have 

 yet seen them. One of our sober men took, this afternoon, 

 upwards of thirty pounds. These fish would probably average 

 fifi;een or sixteen inches in length, and weigh three-quarters of a 

 pound ; occasionally, however, a much larger one is seen. 



bth. — We travelled about twenty miles this day, over a country 

 abounding in lofty hills, and early in the afternoon arrived on 

 Bear river, and encamped. This is a fine stream of about one 

 hundred and fifty feet in width, with a moveable, sandy bottom. 

 The grass is dry and poor, the willow abounds along the banks, 

 and at a distance marks the course of the stream, which 

 meanders through an alluvial plain of four to six miles in width. 

 At the distance of about one hundred miles from this point, the 

 Bear river enters the Salt lake, a large body of salt water, with- 

 out outlet, in which there is so large an island as to afford streams 

 of fresh water for goats and other animals living upon it. 



On the next day we crossed the river, which we immediately 

 left, to avoid a great bend, and passed over some lofty ranges of 

 hills and through the rugged and stony valleys between them ; 

 the wind was blowing a gale right ahead, and clouds of dust were 

 flying in our faces, so that at the end of the day, our coun- 



