POOLE — ON NOTES OF TRAVEL. l5l 



The third day brought us shortly after dark to Granite Moun- 

 tain, some 2000 feet high, standing alone in the desert ; here we 

 expected to find water, and so we would if we had not chosen the 

 wrong spring, and therefore had to eat a dry supper, and wait until 

 morning to seek another spring four miles distant, before we could 

 water the horses. A few dried up limbs of stunted cedar warmed 

 us before we rolled ourselves in blankets , and bid defiance to Jack 

 Frost. 



The fourth day brought us to Deep Creek, and within gun-shot 

 of Nevada. Bidding adieu to the shelter of the mountain , we first 

 crossed a sandy tract, enclosed by a long mound of sand some 20 

 feet high, that encircled more or less completely the old Island 

 Mountain, as a barrier to the waves of the ancient shallow sea; 

 then we entered on the desert in the strictest sense of the term, and 

 crossed a bay of it, some twenty miles wide, level as a table, with- 

 out a mound, or wind-blown elevation, destitute of vegetation, even 

 to the absence of the sage-bush and grease-wood, without the track 

 of a badger or coyote. A slight fall of snow two days previous 

 had moistened the upper layers of salt mud, usually baked hard and 

 dry, which made hard travelling ; the horses balling more than I 

 ever saw them do in snow, and the narrow tyres of the wheels were 

 made four inches wide. 



While traversing this deserted though highly interesting region, 

 the mirage showed many unaccustomed pictures. We appeared to 

 be crossing a small island whose margins seemingly at no great 

 distance continually eluded our approach : the isolated ranges look- 

 ed like islands set in a sea of glass, upon whose surface every 

 feature, bold, bare, and rugged, was faithfully pour tray ed. 



Well on in the afternoon we reached some springs quite at th^ 

 foot of the ancient beach, up which, after a short rest, we wound 

 our way for five miles, gaining an altitude of 1100 feet above the 

 desert. The beach showed many signs of periods of rest during the 

 subsidence of the lake. Great beds of white limestone intercalated 

 with the gravel were cut through by the scour of the declining 

 waters. 



I found the mines easy of access, at an altitude of about 7000 

 feet, and my report being considered satisfactory, the property has 



