EARLY DISCOVEKIES. 15 



The agriculture of this arid region is restricted to those scanty areas 

 of kind that can be irrigated. Of more importance is the grazing of sheep 

 and cattle on the bunch-grass that frequently abounds amid the mountains 

 and sometimes grows beneath the sage-brush. The mines of the precious 

 metals, however, are the principal source of wealth, and to them umst now 

 be added a growing industry in salt, borax, sulphur, and carbonate of soda. 



The Great Basin is not attractive to the pleasure-seeker, but to the 

 geologist it is peculiarly fascinating, both because the absence of vegetation 

 gives such unusual facilities for investigation, and because of the character 

 of the problems to be solved. It is in this inhospitable region, now so arid 

 that many a lost traveler has perished from thirst, that the great lake existed 

 in recent geological time, which has been made a subject of study by the 

 writer and his associates, the results of Avhich are now presented. 



EXPLORATIONS. 



The existence of a great area of interior drainage on this continent, 

 similar in many ways to the desert region of southern Asia, was not 

 known, except to the early Spanish missionaries, among whom the name of 

 Father Escalante is most prominent, and to trappers and hunters, who left 

 no records of their observation, until Caj^t. B. L. E. Bonneville reached its 

 eastern border in 1832.^ A year latei', a party led by Joseph Walker trav- 

 eled across to the Pacific coast, by way of the Humboldt River and the 

 Carson Desert. This expedition returned by a more southern route, and 

 determined that nnich of the country explored did not drain to the ocean. 



Ten years later, J. C Fremont, then a lieutenant in the Army, carried 

 his bold explorations into the same region, and gave the name of "The 

 Great Basin " to the rugged and arid country which he traversed westward 

 of the Rocky Mountains. A comprehensive, and, for the most part, an 

 accurate, description of the general features of the Great Basin, was pub- 

 lished by Fremont in his report of 1848;^ a detailed narrative of his jour- 

 neys in 1842, '43, and '44 having been published three years previously.* 



^Adventures of Ciiptaiu Bonneville, by Wasliingtiiu nviug. 

 "Geographical Memoir upon Upper Calil'ornia, Washington, D. C, 1848, p. 7. 

 ■•Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Washington, 1845. 



