146 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



Weber to the Uinta Divide, to run the road up, and on top of, the ridge on either side 

 of the canon, as might be found expedient. 



I expect to leave for Fort Leavenworth Monday morning, the 29th instant. 

 I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



J. H. Simpson, 

 Captain Corps Tupof/rap/tical Engineers. 

 Major F. J. Porter, 



Assistant Adjutant-General, Camp Floyd, Utah. 



August 21, Fort Bridget:— Longitude, 110° 23' 47"; latitude, 41° 20' 23"; alti- 

 tude above the sea, 6,656 feet; thermometer at 5.30 a. m., 37°. 5. Replenishing 

 supplies and preparing for a move on the 29th. 



August 28, Fort Bridget . — Lieutenant-Colonel Canby, the commanding officer of 

 this post, informs me that oats, spring wheat, barlev, potatoes, and turnips, grow well 

 in this locality ; beets tolerably well. The sutler, Judge Carter, has a farm at Camp 

 Supply, 12 miles higher up, on Smith's Creek, where agriculture does better than at 

 this point, owing, as it is supposed, to the winds in that direction keeping off the frost. 

 The season this summer, however, has been much better than usual, more rain having 

 fallen than was ever known before. 



Colonel Canby has had a saw-mill put up by the soldiers, made up of the parts 

 of two mills, which saws 4,000 feet per day, and the cost per 1,000 feet does not 

 exceed $10. 



To-day a train of about 100 hand-carts passed the fort, drawn by Mormon men 

 and women, all having a sort of harness suitable for the work. I did not see it, but 

 the officers who did pronounced it a most lamentable sight. 



August 29, Fort Bridget:— My party left this morning, in prosecution of its march 

 eastward to Leavenworth, via South Pass. Arrived at Fort Laramie September 17, 

 Fort Kearney October 3, and Fort Leavenworth October 15. As this route has been 

 so frequently reported on by others it will be unnecessary for me to say anything in 

 relation to it. 



I think it proper, however, to record the singular meteorological phenomenon, 

 which I witnessed on the Big Sandy, on the night of the 1st of September, and I do 

 it by inserting the letter 1 addressed to Professor ilenrv, Secretarv of the Smithsonian 



"Camp No. 33, North Fork of Platte River, 

 "Six Hundred and Ninety-two Miles from Camp Floyd, 



"En route to Fort Leavenworth, September 23, 1850. 

 " Dear Sir : Although keeping a meteorological diary in my reconnaissance, 



remarkable phenomenon I witnessed on the night of the 1st of September instant, on 

 the Big Sandy, a branch of Green River, in latitude about 42° north, and longitude 

 109° 50' west of Greenwich, ought to be brought to your attention at once, so that it 

 may be used in any comparison you might wish to make of like phenomenon which 

 might have been noticed before or at the same period in other portions of the globe. 

 " I had retired to bed and gone to sleep, when waking up and perceiving it quite 



