14 FROM GREAT SALT LAKE TO GREEN RIVER. 
of the Muddy, and then ascended the ridge setting down from the Porcupine terrace, and 
nearly on a level with it, between the Muddy and Black's fork. This ridge preserves its ele- 
vation for several miles to the north, and then subsides abruptly into the valley of the fork. 
Upon this divide we encountered much more snow than upon any other part of the route, for 
the warmth of the season was not yet sufficient to affect it at all; and its average depth was 
from twelve to sixteen inches, while the drifts were broader and deeper than we had before 
encountered, varying from fifty and a hundred yards to a fourth of a mile in width. These 
banks, as before stated, arealways found just below the northeastern crests of hills and ridges, 
and can only be avoided by passing either above or below them. 
The view from this position is very extensive. Overlooking the immense valley of Green 
river, which sweeps off to the east, apparently in an almost uninterrupted plain, the Sweet 
Water mountains near the South Pass, with the positions of the Muddy and Bitter creeks 
descending from them, are plainly in sight; and to the south the sources of Black's, Smith's, 
and Henry's forks, in the Uinta mountains. 
From the head of White Clay creek, eastward for 19 miles, a railroad should be carried on 
a gentle curve to the southward, (as indicated on the accompanying map) along the Porcupine 
terrace before described, crossing Bear river and the main branches of Muddy and Sulphur 
creeks, where they are narrow ravines, offering no serious obstacles in themselves to its easy 
construction ; thus avoiding any but a local descent in the passage of these streams, and turn- 
ing all the smaller ravines and branches which must otherwise be crossed below. 
The ascending grade upon this line will be 49.8 feet per mile for 12.90 miles, and 39.50 feet 
per mile for 6.10 miles; and the altitude of the point thus gained—the highest upon the line— 
8,373 feet above the sea. And in descending from this point, the road should follow the ridge 
or divide west of the main branch of Black’s fork by a uniform grade, to which there is no 
obstruction, of 40.30 feet per mile for 12.25 miles, to the main open valley of the fork, to which 
-we descended at 10’clock a. m. The level valley of this stream is here three miles in width, 
with pine, white cedar, and aspen growing upon the stream, and extending to and uniting with 
that on the base of the Uinta mountains. We found considerable grass in this valley, and mud 
in place of snow. The stream in the present low stage of the water, the snow not having com- 
menced to melt in the high mountains, is but 12 feet wide and eight inches deep, flowing rapidly 
over a bed of stones. In crossing its bottom we rode for some distance on the remains of a 
beaver dam, precisely resembling a small embankment 18 inches high, thrown up in making a 
- common ditch. It is several hundred yards long. Travelling partly parallel to the stream, we 
crossed over to Smith's fork, which is separated from Black’s only by a plain common to them 
both, passing near a settlement called Fort Supply, commenced on Smith's fork last autumn. 
It consists of only a half dozen log-houses, and although the margins of the stream are finely 
grassed—upon which considerable herds of cattle have been successfully grazed during the’ past 
winter, with no other food or shelter than they could themselves procure—it must be regarded 
as a doubtful experiment, until experience shall have established the practicability, in this 
latitude upon our continent, of producing crops during the cold summers, and grazing cattle 
during the severe winters, incident to so great an elevation— 7,254 feet, that of our camp on 
the stream, two or three miles below the fort. Our descent from where we came upon Black's 
fork to camp, nine miles, was 69.50 feet per mile. 
We were here in the immediate vicinity of Fort Bridger, the position of which a few miles to 
- the north, on Black’s fork of Green river, was plainly in sight across the open plain. In 
desending from the head of the Muddy I have given the prefere ce to the line indicated, over 
that which follows that stream, as it is entirely free from short curves; and the valley of Black’s 
pem above the junction of the Muddy, is much more broad, open Su direct than that of the 
latter stream. The line eastward from our present camp should be continued directly to where 
it should. cross Green river, near the mouth of Black's fork, and be continued thence eastward 
by the line Domed by Captain Stansbury from Green river, by way of Bridger’s Pass, to the 
