DAVIS: THE WASATCH, CANYON, AND HOUSE RANGES. 37 
Tagged wizened surface like much of the limestone in the arid coun- 
try, was thinly mantled with a gray sintery incrustation, while white 
Bonneville silts were spread around its base. 
The wash of angular stony scraps seems to be extending from the 
base of the piedmont slope and overspreading the finer central deposits 
of the intermont basin; the stones decrease in size as the distance from 
the mountain increases, but they are still angular. When they aver- 
age only from one to three inches, they form a sort of open-work 
Mosaic pavement of many well-toned colors. It was chiefly the larger 
Stones that were turned dark brown with desert varnish. On ap- 
proaching the creamy playa, we crossed a belt of greasewood bushes; 
each bush determined the formation of a mound, from 4 to 6 feet high, 
of wind-drifted material within its branches and for 10 or 20 feet to 
leeward (N E.). The plain here has in consequence a very differ- 
ent appearance according as one looks up the wind and sees chiefly 
the white mounds, or down the wind and sees chiefly the green 
bushes. Some of the mounds were made of fine textured clayey 
material; others of oolitic grains; the latter were of looser build than 
the former. We found the playa surface firm and smooth, so that 
our wagon wheels left only shallow marks; but at one point we saw 
indications that some earlier travellers had been mired when the 
playa was wet and soft. 
The chief object in crossing the plain to Indian Spring was to get 
sketches and photographs of the western face of the House range in 
the advantageous light of the late afternoon, but we were disappointed 
in this object by reason of a curtous dust storm. The morning had 
been clear. About noon clouds began to form over the House range 
in the east and over a lower, subdued range in the west; the clouds at 
first were cumulus of moderate thickness; afterwards a cirro-stratus 
overflow was added, which turned towards the playa basin from each 
range. About 5 P. m. the cumulus part of the clouds had almost dis- 
appeared and rain trails were seen falling from the cirro-stratus that 
came from the House range. At the same time clouds of dust were 
raised beneath the rain trail, apparently around the border of a body 
of descending, outflowing, and again.ascending air. The dusty wind 
Squall passed our camp and made the air so turbid that the mountains 
were completely hidden-for a time; at sunset they were seen only in 
general outline, without detail. 
We rode southward on July 22, crossing the plain west of the playa, 
where the fine powdery soil, rather plentifully occupied with low grease- 
wood bushes, gave hard work to our horses. After a few tiresome 
