PILOT PEAK — INDIAN CEDAR LODGES. Ill 



whether even the best mule we had could have gone more than 

 half a dozen miles farther. Several of them had given out in 

 crossing the last plain, and we had to leave them and the baggage 

 behind, and to return for it afterward. Another day without 

 water and the whole train must have inevitably perished. Both 

 man and beast being completely exhausted, I remained here three 

 days for refreshment and rest. Moreover, we were now to prepare 

 for crossing another desert of seventy miles, which, as my guide in- 

 formed me, still lay between us and the southern end of the lake. 

 He had passed over it in 1845, with Frdmont, who had lost ten 

 mules and several horses in effecting the passage, having afterward 

 encamped on the same ground now occupied by our little party. 



During our stay here, it rained almost every day and night. 

 The salt plain, which before had glistened in the sunlight like a 

 sheet of molten silver, now became black and sombre ; the salt, 

 over which we had passed with so much ease, dissolved, and the 

 flat, in places, became almost impassable. We had encamped at 

 the eastern base of a range of high mountains, stretching a great 

 distance to the north, and terminated, three miles below, in an ab- 

 rupt escarpment, called Pilot Peak: upon the lofty summit of which 

 rested a dark cloud during the whole of our stay. For three miles 

 from the base the ascent is gradual, the surface being covered with 

 gravel and boulders of granite, feldspathic rock, and metamorphic 

 sandstones, all evidently waterworn. Higher up the mountain, 

 the only stratified rocks seen were micaceous schists and slaty 

 shales, intersected in various directions by veins of quartz, and 

 very much displaced. The general dip was north by east from 

 70° to 80°. Proceeding south a few miles along the mountain, 

 the same stratified rocks were again noticed, evidently much al- 

 tered by heat, being interspersed with veins of granite and quartz. 

 Dwarf cedar was growing here, and, higher up the mountain, dwarf 

 pine ; in the bottom, white and red willow, and Equisetum. 



In a nook of the mountain, some Indian lodges were seen, which had 

 apparently been finished but a short time. They were constructed 

 in the usual conical form, of cedar poles and logs of a considerable 

 size, thatched with bark and branches, and were quite warm and 

 comfortable. The odour of the cedar was sweet and refreshing. 

 These lodges had been put up, no doubt, by the Shoshonee Indians 

 for their permanent winter-quarters, but had not yet been occu- 

 pied. The savages had been in the neighbourhood to collect the 

 nuts of the pine-tree, called here pinon, for food, but what they 



