235 f 174] 
Bere i ee 
pade during our stay, gives for the latitude 35’ ' 57", longitude 120° 
25' 57'', and rate of the chronometer 25''.82. oy 
February 16.—We had succeeded in getting our animals safely to the 
first grassy hill ; and this morning | started with Jacob on a reconnoitring 
e 
n began to hear the rushing of the water 
below the ice surface, over which we travelled to avoid the snow; a few 
F piles below we broke through, where the water was several feet deep, and 
ted to make a fire and dry our clothes. We continued a few miles 
farther, walking being very laborious without snow shoes. % 
I was now perfectly satisfied that we had struck the stream on. which: 
disgoneneguneseoriet 1 large cake of very white fine-grained salt, which 
, the India un- 
tain ; they used it to eat with their pine nuts, and readily sold it for goods. 
On the 19th, the people were occupied in making a road and bringing up 
the baggage ; and, on the afternoon of the next day, February 20, 1544, we. 
encamped with the animals and all the materiel of the camp, on thesummit 
» of the Pass in the dividing ridge, 1,000 niles by our travelled road from 
the Dalles of the Columbia. 
The people, who had not yet been to this point, climbed the neighboring 
peak to enjoy a look at the valley. . * : 
The temperature of boiling water gave for the elevation of the eneamp- 
ment 9,338 feet above the sea. = 
This was.2,000 feet higher than the South Pass inthe Rocky mountains, 
and several peaks in view rose several ousand feet still higher. at 
the extremity of the continent, and near the coast, the phenomenon was 
“seen of a range of mountai still higher than the great Rocky mountains 
themselves. This extraordinary fact aceountsfor the Great Basin, and 
‘shows that there must be a system of small lakes and rivers here scattered 
over a flat country, and which the extended and lofty range of the Sierra 
Neyada prevents from escaping to the Pacifie ocean. Latitude 38° 44's 
longitude 120° 28%: . . age OP 
‘Thus this Pass. in, the Sierra Nevada, which so well deserves its name 
of Snowy mountain, is eleven degrees west and about four-degrees south 
of the South Pagge« <7 t Lie ee 
