26 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS TIIE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



Floyd to Genoa 531 miles. By the old Humboldt route, according to tlie itinerary in 

 Captain Marcy's "Prairie Traveler," the distance from Salt Lake City to Reese's Ranch, 

 Genoa, is 774 miles; and as Camp Floyd is 40 miles from Great Salt Lake City, the 

 distance from Camp Floyd to Genoa, by this route, is 814 miles. That is, my more 

 northern route from Salt Lake City to Genoa is 203 miles shorter than the old Hum- 

 boldt River route, and from Camp Floyd 283 miles shorter. e By my return, a more 

 southern route, the distance from Genoa to Camp Floyd is 560 miles, or 29 miles 

 longer than my outward route ; but while longer, in grade, grass, and extent of culti- 

 vable soil, it is better. Both these new routes have been since traveled by emigrants 

 and droves of cattle, and continue to be traveled by them, and upon the more northern 

 is now running the mail and pony express. The Placerville and Saint Joseph Tele- 

 graph Company are now also extending then wires along it, and have already reached, 

 as I am informed, Fort Churchill, at the bend of Carson River eastwardly from San 

 Francisco, h and from Saint Joseph, Mo., westward, the telegraph is in operation as 

 far as Fort Kearney, on the Platte River. The easy connection of my inward or 

 southern route from Chapin's Spring with Captain Gunnison's along the Sevier River 

 and Grand River will also be apparent, as well as the great advantage of the new 

 wagon-road pass I explored at the head of Coal Creek, a tributary of the Timpanogos 

 River, for the extension of my routes over the Uintah Mountains, and by the way of 

 Duchesne's Fork, White River, and the Middle Park of the Rocky Mountains to Denver 

 City in Kansas; and thence to Saint Joseph or Leavenworth City. The map here- 

 with, on which will be seen these routes, and the topography of the country traversed, 

 and to which, in reading the journal, constant reference should be had, has been pro- 

 jected upon the polyconic method on a scale of l7 ^6, and the meridians and parallels 

 of latitude laid down agreeably to data obtained frcm the tables arranged by Mr. J. E 

 Hilgard, and published in the annual report of Professor A. D. Bache, Superintendent • 

 of the United States Coast Survey, for 1856. 



(gr) It will be noticed that in my project of exploiations to the War Department, of January 6, 1859, 1 stated that 

 I hoped to shorten the oil yd, 260 miles. The actual shortening has been 283 miles. 



(h) In the ahove I say no! pirative advantages between my routes and the old Humboldt 



route, except that to those em i g , of Salt Lake City or Camp Floyd, there is no question that my route 



are far preferable, being 203 miles shorter in the first case and 283 in the second, and doubtless as good in respect to 

 hardness, water, and grass T ;<! aa regards wood. To enable the emigrant, however, as he reads my 



journal, to institute some sorl o the routes, I give below some extracts from the reports of differ- 



ent Government officials in respect to the character of the old route along the Humboldt River, and inform him, at the 

 same time, that while on my routes at either end there is some desert country to go over, yet that besides the alkaline 



water, grass, and n he old road ban I ;,t. Dd \\ ith along the Humboldt, they have to cross, 



in the case of their taking h.-nee the Carson River route, a desert of 4.", miles and another of 26; and in the case of the 

 Honey Lake route, also a desert of about 60 miles where there is a scarcity of water and grass. I would also state that 

 the distance from the Missouri River, via South Pass, Great Salt Lake City, and my shortest route across the basin, is 41 

 miles shorter than that In Laudei -'- '-Cut- •;: " a i rim Carson River route, to San Francisco, and 55 miles shorter than 

 by his " cut-off" and the Honey Lake road. 



Lieutenant Beckwith, vol. ii, P. R. R. Reports, speaking ..f the Humboldt River, June 4, 1-54, at Lassen's Meadows, 

 uses the following language : 



" We moved camp 6.80 miles down the i i \ « r to a point .-e!eer*.i fur erossing it. when; it lias no bottom-land upon 

 it. These low lands being very mimli overflowed at this season, and i in n-e.-ntin \ s - i , . for horses or rati It 

 and many arriving here in a weak condition, are annually lost by emigrants from l.eeoming mind. Hut one of the 

 chief causes of the loss of cattle by emigrants upon this stn tm L-, alio ig th u t > . it tin „i i»s in the river-bottom, 

 which is extremely unwholesome. The more experienced stock-drovers to California Bend their cattle back from the 

 i the nutritious grass of the hills ; but as these are frequently distant from the road aud from wafer, i t 1 1 



i report to General A. S. Johnston, of October 24, 1859, states that he 



