153 f 174 J 
_ We left the camp at sunrise, and had a very pleasant voyage down the 
river, in which there was generally eight or ten feet of water, deepening as 
we neared the mouth in the latter part of the day. In the course of the 
morning we discovered that two of the cylinders leaked so much as to re- 
quire one man constantly at the bellows, to keep them sufficiently full of 
air to support the boat. Although we had made-a very early start, we 
loitered so much on the way— stopping every now and then, and floating 
silently along, to get a shot at a goose or a duck—that it was late in the day 
when we reached the outlet. The river here divided into several branches, 
filled with fluvials, and so very shallow that it was with difficulty we 
could get the boat along, being obliged to get out and wade. Weencamped 
on a low point among rushes and young willows, where there was a quan- 
tity of drift wood, which served for our fires. The evening was mild and 
clear ; we made a pleasant bed of the young willows ; and geese and ducks 
enough had been killed for an abundant supper at night, and for breakfast 
the next morning. The stillness of the night was enlivened by millions of 
water fowl. Latitude (by observation) 41° 11’ 26''; and longitude 112° 
if . 
Sept 9, -*Bhe day was clear and calm; the thermometer at sunrise 
at 49°. As is usual with the trappers on the eve of any enterprise, our peo- 
ple had made dreams, and theirs happened to be a bad one—one which al- 
ways preceded evil—and consequently they looked very gloomy this morn- 
ing ; but we hurried through our breakfast, in order to make an early start, 
and have all the day before us for our adventure. The channel in a short 
distance became so shallow that our navigation was at an end, being merely 
a sheet of soft mud, with a few inches of water, and sometimes none atall, 
forming the low- water shore of the lake. All this place was absolutely 
covered with flocks of screaming plover. We took off our clothes, and, 
getting overboard, commenced dragging the boat—making, by this opera- 
tion, a very curious trail, and a very disagreeable = cb * stirring up the 
mud, as we sank above the knee at every step. The water here was still \ 
- fresh, with only an insipid and disagreeable taste, sbobabty, seal from the 
bed of fetid mud. After proceeding in this way about a mile, we came to 
a small black ridge on the bottom, beyond which the water became sud- 
denly salt, beginning gradually to deepen, and the bottom was sandy and 
firm. It was a remarkable division, separating the fresh water of the rivers 
from the briny water of the lake, ‘which was entirely saturated with com- 
mon salt. Pushing our little vessel across the narrow boundary, we _* 
on board, and at length were afloat on the waters of the unknown sea 
We did not steerer the mountainous islands, but directed our course to- 
wards a lower one, which it had been, decided we should first visit, thee 
summit of which was formed like the crater at the upper end of Bear river 
bai, SE So ne as we could touch the bottom with our eee, we were 
hi a ‘was (Tale iankcand over our 1 clothes, w ge con- 
