102 RECONNOISSANCE AROUND GREAT SALT LAKE. 



proved perfectly serene, and a young moon shed its tremulous liglit 

 upon a sea of profound, unbroken silence. I was surprised to find, 

 although so near a body of the saltest water, none of that feeling 

 of invigorating freshness which is always experienced when in the 

 vicinity of the ocean. The bleak and naked shores, without a sin- 

 gle tree to relieve the eye, presented a scene so different from what 

 I had pictured in my imagination of the beauties of this far-famed 

 spot, that my disappointment was extreme. 



Tuesday J October 23. — Ther. at daylight, 37°. Morning clear 

 and calm ; the lake and mountains to the eastward yet wrapped in 

 mist. The west side of the extremity of the promontory is composed 

 of porphyry, interspersed with seams of white quartz, which 

 veined it in the most beautiful manner. The quartz veins in some 

 instances were several feet thick. These rocks, evidently in place, 

 rose boldly, forming escarpments looking to the south-west, with a 

 dip, apparently to the north, of about 50°. Decomposed lime- 

 stone, containing organic remains, and also trap rock, were here 

 observed. The ground near our encampment was covered with a 

 species of Astragalus^ the seed-pods of which were covered by a 

 substance resembling cotton, and presented the appearance of oval 

 white balls, about the size of a robin's egg. I afterward found 

 this plant upon most of the islands of the lake. 



Rounding the point of the promontory, the shore of the lake 

 trends off to the northward, forming several picturesque little bays 

 with bold rocky headlands. After travelling about nine miles, we 

 came to several springs of good and most welcome water, and we 

 stopped to refresh our animals and to noon. The finding of this 

 water was entirely unexpected, as, from the representations of an 

 old Shoshonee Indian, made to us before leaving Bear River, I did 

 not look for any for two days, and had in consequence dismounted 

 one of the men to enable us to carry the more vessels, all of which 

 had been filled before leaving our camp in the morning. I went 

 down to the shore of the lake to taste of the water : it was as salt as 

 very strong brine, and clear and transparent as diamond. A large 

 flock of gulls was swimming about near the shore. After feasting our 

 animals upon the grass that grew among the tall rushes and canes 

 around the spring, we continued along the shore of the lake for 

 about nine miles farther, and succeeded in discovering three springs 

 within that distance, at the last of which we halted for the night. 



After doubling the southern end of the promontory, the broad 

 flats, which had characterized the shore at its eastern base, en- 



