138 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



"In this connection I think it proper to say that no permission was asked by me 

 to go through the canon, and no objections were made; and this I believe has been the 

 experience of all the Government and contractor's trains which have passed over the 

 route. 



"To resume my account of the route. Four miles from the mouth of the canon 

 is the first sufficiently wide place for a small command to encamp, and here will be 

 found plenty of grass. Two miles farther is the first sufficiently wide place for ox- 

 teams to corral, and grass also exists here in abundance. Indeed, from this point as far 

 as the road extends along the Timpanogos, a distance of 23 miles, at short distances can 

 be found most excellent camping-places for the largest commands and trains. The 

 river is well timbered from the mouth of the canon up, and there is every other requisite 

 needed. 



"As I have before remarked, the turnpike extends from the mouth of the canon 

 for a distance of 12 miles. Thence the route continues along the Timpanogos, cross- 

 ing it about a mile above Waifs ranch, and through Round Prairie for a distance of 

 10 miles, when it enters another canon, or, rather, narrow valley, 4 miles long, where 

 the river is in places obstructed for about 3 miles by beaver-dams and where the road 

 for a few hundred yards is rather soft. This canon gone through and the line crossed 

 again, the route leaves the main Timpanogos and, passing along a small tributary, in 

 4.5 miles commences going up the divide between the Timpanogos and Silver Creek, 

 and in a distance of 1.5 miles, with a pretty fair grade and on rather a stony slope, 

 reaches the summit. The principal timber on the creek is the oak, cottonwood, box- 

 elder, sugar-maple, birch, and willow. Pine and the fir-tree are to be seen on the 

 mountains. Currants, red and black; the sweet sarvisberry, and a blue berry like the 

 small winter grape, and which the Mormons call the mountain grape, are found in 

 considerable quantities in the valley. 



"In Round Prairie, near where Rattlesnake Creek debouches from the mountains, 

 on the north side of the valley, are to be seen a number of hot springs, the highest 

 point the thermometer indicating in any one of them being 109°.50. These springs, 

 which are of great depth, well up from the surface, and, running over, deposit a 

 residuum or tufa, which accumulates about their mouths and forms tumuli, in one 

 instance of about 60 feet in height and 2(H) feet in diameter at base. These 

 tumuli are hemispherical in sonic instances, and in others conical, and after attaining 

 a certain height the water ceases to flow, and the walls begin to disintegrate and tumble 

 down, and are eventually lost in the general level of the Country. 



"For several miles the substratum, for a depth in some places of 60 feet, as far 

 as could be discovered, was composed entirely of this calcareous rock, and there is no 

 doubt it is entirely due to an origin of the same sort. Rattlesnakes abound about 

 these springs, and in a warm summer's day you cannot tread near some of them with- 

 out hearing their sharp rattle. Traces of coal are to be seen in the lower canon near 

 its mouth, and the guide informs me that he has picked up specimens in the creek, 

 which, on that account, has been called Coal Creek. The Timpanogos Valley is 

 remarkably well watered, and the traveler will be greatly pleased, particularly on a 

 hot summer's day, with the many cold, gushing, pure streams which he will cross, all 

 flowing into the Timpanogos. 



