— IOI — 
crowned with pine and cedar. The valley thus en- 
closed is half a mile to a mile in diameter, and cov- 
ered as to the greater part with a cedar grove. This 
evergreen cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) is the same 
which is also found in the eastern parts of the United 
States. It is only found in sandy soil on low mountains 
or the slopes of higher ones. It tends rather to thick- 
ness and breadth than to height, and is never crowd- 
ed, though forming little woods. Unfortunately 
travelers have cut down and burned many trees of 
this grove. Its total destruction could rob the val- 
ley of one of its most precious ornaments. I fixed 
my camp under an old cedar, near one of the springs, 
that here bubble up from the ground. Exhausted 
by the burden and heat of the day, we all refreshed 
ourselves with this delicious draught. It was a cool, 
sparkling water, slightly chalybeate to the taste, with 
cheering and invigorating effect on the nervous sys- 
tem. So far as I could determine without chemical 
analysis, it is some acid of iron with abundant car- 
bonic acid and slight admixture of salts. Addition 
of a little sugar and tartaric acid made it effervesce 
rapidly; in quiet condition, the carbonic acid escaped 
in little pearly bubbles. This pearling and efferves- 
cing has given the water the prosaic name of Beer 
Spring, since the term beer is in general use for all 
effervescing liquids. These springs appear either 
singly in perpendicularly walled openings out of the 
earth, about a foot in circumference and several feet 
deep; or else several of them form a common basin. 
The Beer 
Spring— 
Journey to 
Fort Hall 
