28 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



fresh-water lakes, abound in fine, large trout, and Carson Lake in fish of a smaller 

 kind. Great Salt Lake, according to Stansbmy, contains 20 per cent, of pure salt.' 



The principal rivers, which, on account of their width and depth, require bridging 

 or ferry, in their flush state, during the time of melting-snow, are the Bear, Weber, 

 Roseaux or Malade, Jordan, Timpanogos, Spanish Fork, and Sevier Rivers, which 

 have their sources in the Wahsatch Mountains, on the east side of the Basin, and flow 

 into the lakes near the base of these mountains ; the Mojave, Owen's, Walker's, Car- 

 son, and Truckee, or Salmon Trout Rivers, which have their sources in the Sierra 

 Nevada, and flow into lakes at their base and sink ; and the Humboldt River, which 

 flows from east to south of west along the northern portion of the Basin and sinks. 

 The largest of these is probably the Humboldt, about 300 miles long ; and the next, 

 Bear River, 250 miles long. The others range from about 40 to 120 miles in length. 

 These streams vary from 50 to about 150 feet in width, and from 2 to about 15 in 

 depth, depending upon the season and locality. 



All the other streams are of small extent ; and taking their rise in the many 

 mountain ranges with which the Basin is traversed (generally from north to south), 

 they seldom flow beyond their bases, where, in the alluvion, they sink. These streams 

 are generally so small that you can jump across them, and seldom require bridging. 

 The large as well as the small streams mentioned, when not brackish, not unfrequently 

 contain trout. 



The trend of the mountain ranges is almost invariably north and south, the limits 

 of variation being between the true and magnetic north. The mountains rise quite 

 abruptly from the plain, and from bases varying in breadth from a few miles to about 

 twelve. These 1 mountain ranges are so frequent and close together as to make the area 

 between them more like valleys than plains, and the roads cross them on the average 

 every 10 or 15 miles. In length they equal the ranges. Longitudinally they are 

 nearly level, the inclination in portions not being perceptible; sometimes tending 

 northward and sometimes southward, and, not unfrequently, they are made up of minor 

 valleys, separated by small ridges or rims. In cross-section they are slightly concave. 



The most massive and lofty mountains, commencing at Camp Floyd and pro- 

 ceeding westward, are the Oquirr, Guy or, Goshoot or Tots-arr, Un-go-we-ah, Mon-tim, 

 Humboldt, We-ah-bah, Pe-er-re-ah, and Se-day-e ranges. Of these, the Tots-arr, Un- 

 go-we-ah, Humboldt, Pe-er-re-ah, and Se-day-e are the most massive and lofty, snow 

 appearing in patches upon their loftiest portions the whole year round. The lengths 

 of the ranges in some instances our explorations enabled us to determine were at least 

 120 miles, and they there extended into unknown regions beyond the field of our 

 explorations. These ranges attain, in the case of Union Peak, the highest point of the 

 Tots-arr or Goshoot range, an altitude above the plain of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, or 

 of from 10,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea. In the case of the Oquirr range, the 

 highest point, Camp Floyd Peak, according to Lieutenant Putnam's measurement, by 

 theodolite, was found to be 4,214 feet above Camp Floyd: and as this locality, by 

 barometric measurement, is 4,860 feet above the sea, the peak referred to is 9,074 feet 

 above the sea. The highest pass was on our return-r oute and through the Un-go-we-ah 



(i) Stansbory's report, " Salt Lake/' pp. 418, 419. 



