Miscellaneous Intelligence. | 281 
fornia. South of Utah is another lake, of which little more is known 
especially important on account of its lying on the line of travel to Cal- 
ifornia, being the best route through the Great Basin. It terminates 
opposite the Salmon Trout pass in the Sierra, a pass only seven thou- 
sand two hundred feet above the sea, leading into the valley of the 
: aston 
The settlement of the Mormons near the Great Salt lake is making 
good progress. On the first of April they had “three thousand acres 
in wheat, seven saw, and grist mills, seven hundred houses i in a fortified 
flourishing settlement.” The Great Basin, although arid in most parts, 
has many exceptions to this i and deserves a full and thorough 
exploration. 
West of the Sierra Nevada, between the range and the sea, there.is 
an area one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles wide, extending 
from lat. 32°, where it touches the peninsula of California, to 42°, and 
having an area of above one hundred thousand square miles. It contains 
rivers emptying together into the Ba of San Francigco, besides others 
of less importance. The soil is fertile and the climate mild. In the 
winter s@ason for three to five months there are usually abundant rains, 
Kipiosion so the Great Fire of 1845, at New prin a 
of the Franklin Institute, for 20th April last, p. 392.)—Dr. Harz com- 
municated to the meeting some inferences and facts, Sale to account 
for the contradictory impressions which have existed respecting the 
extensive district, involving the destruction of about two hundred houses 
and property estimated at two millions of dollars. As far as the oaths 
of highly competent witnesses could avail, no gunpowder was present ; 
