POOLE ON THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT. 209 



the saline plains of the Saskatchawan, or a Bay of Fundy mud flat 

 at low tide. Still as there are many fertile valleys among the 

 mountains naturally well watered, and many extensive plains that 

 need only irrigation to make them blossom as the rose, the term 

 Great American Desert has become restricted to and is now only 

 applied to that comparatively small district, which lies immediately 

 to the west and south-west of the Great Salt Lake in Utah Terri- 

 tory. The northern border of this region is skirted by the Central 

 Pacific Railroad ; but before the trans-continental traveller from 

 the east becomes acquainted with its dreary expanse, he has to tra- 

 verse the passes of the Wahsatch Mountains, where his attention is 

 drawn to the bold scenery of Echo and Weber Canons, and where 

 as he scans the rugged sides of those passes for glimpses of the 

 picturesque spots, or for unfamiliar views of towering crags and 

 overhanging precipices, he will perchance as he ^ears Ogden (the 

 junction of the Union and Central Pacific roads,) notice horizontal 

 and parallel lines more or less distinctly marked on the sides of the 

 Canon. These lines on a nearer approach are seen to be made of 

 wide " beaches", or, as they are locally called, "benches" of gravel, 

 which having a gentle inclination plainward extend in a series of 

 terraces from the foothills of the mountains to the bed of the canon 

 and margin of the lake. The attention once called to this peculiar 

 feature of the landscape, the eye naturally w^anders over the wide 

 view which is presented when the valley of the Great Lake is 

 reached, for further confirmation of the well known theory which 

 their appearance calls to remembrance : — that they are the ' ' beaches" 

 formed by the lake when its waters stood at a much higher level 

 than they do at present. 



Through the clear air the continuations of these horizontal lines 

 are seen for miles girdling the mountain sides and the rocky 

 islands in the lake. The more this feature of the landscape is 

 considered, the more conclusive does the evidence seem that each 

 terrace marks the position at which the landwash of the great sea 

 once stood, and that the present lake, large as it is, is but the rem- 

 nant of one a hundred times greater. 



But it is on the borders of the great desert where a wider range 

 gave freer scope to the ancient winds and storms to stir up the 



