78 FROM FORT BRIDGER TO GREAT SALT LAKE CITY. 



lounged about, leaning lazily upon their rifles, looking listlessly 

 on, as if it were a matter in which they were in no manner inte- 

 rested. They had quite a large number of horses and mules, and 

 their encampment betokened comparative comfort and wealth. 



The bottom of Bear River is here four or five miles in breadth, 

 and is partially overflowed in the spring : the snow lies upon it 

 to the depth of four feet in the winter, which prevents the In- 

 dians from occupying it during that season of the year, for which 

 it would otherwise be well adapted. 



In leaving Fort Bridger, we passed over horizontal lias beds. 

 About six miles to the north of the road, the country appeared to 

 be much broken up, and not solely by the action of water. The 

 strata seemed dislocated and inclined, presenting much the same 

 appearance as those near Laramie. Near this point, Fremont 

 states that he found coal, which probably has been thrown up 

 here. At Ogden's Hole, on the eastern slope of the Wahsatch 

 Mountains, we found the ranges of hills to be composed of the 

 carboniferous strata, thrown up at a very considerable angle ; and 

 at Bear River, near our encampment of to-day, they were almost 

 perpendicular, the later strata being deposited by their side in 

 an almost horizontal position, with a very slight dip to the south- 

 east. At this latter point, the older sandstones were cropping out 

 at an angle of 35° ; and on the opposite side of the river, the 

 same strata were seen with a dip in the contrary direction, the 

 valley being evidently an anticlinal axis. 



Wednesday^ August 22. — Crossing the broad valley of Bear 

 River diagonally, we forded that stream, and struck over a point of 

 blufi" into a valley, the course of which being too much to the south 

 for our purpose, we passed over to another, and followed it to its 

 head, where it opens upon a long ridge, running to the south-west. 

 Instead of following the ridge, (which I afterward found should have 

 been done,) we crossed over two more ridges into a third valley, 

 in which was a small rapid stream running into Bear River. 

 Fearful of getting too far south, I ascended the western blufi" of 

 this stream, in hopes of finding a valley or ridge the course of 

 which would give us more westing ; but the country, in that direc- 

 tion, was so much broken that we were forced still farther to the 

 south, and struck upon the heads of Pumbar's Creek, a tribu- 

 tary of the Weber River, which latter discharges its waters into 

 the Great Salt Lake. This valley, our guide insisted, would lead 

 us in the right direction, and it was concluded to follow it down, 



