[ ava J 208 
first waters of that Great Interior Basin which has the Wahsatch and Bear 
river mountains for its eastern, and the Sierra Nevada for its western rim; 
and the edge of which we had entered upwards. of three months before, at 
the Great Salt lake. 
en we had sufficiently sttnued the scene below, we began to think 
‘about saa 2 which here was impossible, and we turned ‘towards the 
north, travelling always. along the rocky wall. We continued. on for four 
ve miles, making ineffectual attempts at several places; and at length 
succeeded in ‘getting down at one which was extremely difficult of descent. 
Night had closed in before the foremost reached the bottom, and it was dark 
before we all found ourselves together in. the valley. There were three or 
four half dead dry cedar trees on the shore, and those who first arrived 
‘kindled bright fires to light on the others. One of the mules rolled over 
and over two or three hundred feet into a ravine, but recovered himself, 
without any. other injury than to his pack; and the howitzer was left mid- 
way the mountain until morning. By observation, the latitude of this en- 
camipment is 42° 57' 22". It delayed us until near noon the next day to 
recover ourselves and put every thing in order; and we made only a short. 
camp along the western shore of the lake, which, ifthe summer Hil 
ture we enjoyed to-day, justified the name we had given it. Our 
would have taken us to the other shore, and over the highlands boy one 
but I distrusted the appearance of the country, and decided to salow a 
plainly beaten Indian trail leading along this side of the lake. Wew 
now in a country where the scarcity of water and of. Brass, makes travel- 
ling arsne rd and great caution was necessary. 
r-18,—We continued on the trail along the narrow strip of-latid 
berene! the lake anid the high rocky wall,from which.we had looked down 
two days before. Almost évery half mile we. crossed a. litile spring, or 
stream of pure cold water; and the grass was certainly as fresh and green 
as in the early spring. From the white efflorescence along the shore of 
the lake,-we were enabled to judge that the waterewas impure, like that 
of lakes we subsequently found ; but the mud prevented. us from approach- 
ing it. We encamped near the eastern point of the lake, where there ap- 
peared between the hills a broad and. low connecting hollew with the | 
country beyond. From a rocky hill in the rear, Lcould see, marked out 
by a line of yellow dried grass, the bed of a a ieee which probably con- 
the lake ‘with other waters in the sprin nase 
‘The observed latitude of this encampment is 42° 42" 97" a 
“December 19.—After two hours’ ride in an easterly ceed, through a 
low country, the high ridge with pine forest still to ou it 
and bald but lower one on the left, we reached a eS aisslerel ale ean eater 
stream, ahiclst issues from the piney mountains. So fargas 
able to judge, between this strearh and the lake we had crossed dividing 
‘grounds ; and there did not appear to be any connexion, as might be in- 
ferred. from the i impure condition of the lake water. 
“The rapid stream of pute water, roaring along between oaks overhitig 
with aspens and willows, was a refreshing and unexpecte ; and we 
followed down the course of the stream, which Pach os "soon into a 
wae aoe dry lake, formed by the expanding waters of the stream. It was 
Teeds 
with high r -and Bea and large patches of ground aad been 
maa up by the vs in digging for roots, as if a fatmer.had been pre-.__ 
paring the land forgra ‘ent eh aneneed in finding theplant for which | 
