GO EXPECTATIONS ACROSS THE GEEAT BASIN OF UTAH, 



my query, the angles of time were recorded. We got through at midnight. Also, 

 determined the magnetic variation at this camp, by observations on Polaris. 



The survey of the day is plotted after getting into camp, and thus, as we proceed, 

 we have daily a correct view of our position. All of our notes, astronomical and 

 barometerical and itinerary, are also perfected. The four chronometers are also 

 daily, at the same hour, compared, and a record kept of the daily difference of each 

 with the large box-chronometer. Find longitude of this camp (No. 12) to be 114° 

 58' 15" ; latitude, 39° 51' 46"; altitude, 5,986 feet; magnetic variation, 16° 47' E. 



The dews in this region are scarcely perceptible, and my flannel, I notice, is 

 generally highly charged with electricity. 



May 15, Camp No. 12, mouth of Egan Canon.— Extremely cold this morning 

 Thermometer at sunrise, 26°. Air pure, sun bright, ;m ,l tju . wiml str0Bg from the 

 west. Moved at quarter to 6. The pioneer party went ahead, in order to prepare the 

 road. Our course is westward, up Egan Canon, by an easy ascent, to Round Valley 

 about 2.5 miles, thence six miles across Round Valley, and by a ravine which required 

 some work, to the summit of the Montim range (elevation above the sea, 7 135 feet) 

 and thence 9.5 miles across Butte Valley, to the vicinity of a small well on the west 

 side of the valley. 



Egan Canon we found quite narrow, and somewhat remarkable on account of the 

 rocks winch wall it m on either side. These rocks are tremendously massive, and rise 

 sheer to a height in one place of about 1,000 feet. They are a compact quartz granite 

 of a grayish color, which becomes embrowned by exposure, and is Intermingled with 

 altered slate. Small veins of pure white quartz are seen traversing it very conspicu- 

 ously. The general character of the range (Montim) is granitic at the base in so no 

 places, but mostly tilted and highly-altered stratified rocks quarteite slates &c 

 Higher up, siliceous limestones, and, on the west side, porphyrinic rocks The riv' 

 and heights abound with cedar, and thick ariemisia characterizes the valle s '■ T^t 

 after crossing Round Valley we passed through a sort of cedar and sa-e-brush fJnee 

 which must have been about .75 of a mile long, and put up by the Indians Its our' 

 pose, doubtless, was to catch rabbits by the suspension upon it of a net' in the mode 

 explained before, and their attempting to run through it. 



The Montim Range, between Steptoe and Butte Valley, is the boundary between 

 the Go-shoot and Sho-sho-nee tribes of Indians; the latter ranging to the' west of the 



Round Valley, which is about 4 miles wide and 16 miles long, abounds in grass 

 Butte \ alley ranges north and south, and at the north appears to be uninterrupted 

 except by low hills; at the south it is closed in by a cross-range some 30 miles off. It 

 is about 8 miles wide, and takes its name from the buttes or toble-hills in it Soil of 

 the usual yellowish color, and of a dry argillo-arenaceous character, good for nothim- 

 hut to sustain the artemism. (Altitude above the sea, 6,148 feet). The range of mount- 

 ains limiting it on its west side are low, and, though covered with cedar, present but 

 little indications of water. Those at the south end, from their height and snow o-i ve 

 better indications. The Humboldt range has appeared ahead of us to-day, looming 

 up above the range limiting Butte Valley on the west, and is covered with snow ft 



