184 WESTERN SHORE OF THE LAKE. 



purpose of encamping. But tlie mirage was so great that we 

 found ourselves much deceived in the distance. Instead of half a 

 mile, the bushes were more than two miles off; and after travel- 

 ling upward of a mile, I concluded to encamp where we were, and 

 to go to the fringe of green for wood enough to cook with. 

 This was accordingly done, and in our search we stumbled on two 

 very pretty little streams of fresh, cool water, within a half-mile 

 of the camp, but which, after flowing a short distance, sank in 

 the sand and disappeared. Upon the banks of one of the creeks 

 was a patch of long, dry, matted grass, which had been beaten 

 down by the winter snows. To this I set fire, as a signal to the 

 shore party of our whereabouts. A huge column of smoke imme- 

 diately rose to the heavens, and completely answered the purpose. 

 The party, nevertheless, did not get into camp before ten o'clock 

 at night, having been perplexed in the dark by salt creeks and 

 marshes. There was but little joking or music in camp to-night, 

 as the unwearied fiddle had been left in the boat, and the men were 

 thoroughly tired out. 



The shore party, to-day, in running their line, crossed several 

 quite large streams of good fresh water ; and upon the termination 

 of the day's work, came upon one, eighty feet wide and ten feet 

 deep, by measurement, and flowing with a full current. All of 

 these spring-branches burst forth on the old storm-line of the lake, 

 but none of them ever enter it. They doubtless take their rise in 

 the mountains to the north and north-west, and percolating through 

 the sands, or passing in veins underneath the surface, break forth 

 suddenly into bold streams, with abundance of water, which in a 

 short distance fork and spread out into shallow channels, form a 

 sort of marsh, and are finally altogether absorbed by the sand, 

 long before they reach the lake. In the channels, and on the 

 margin of the streams, grow reeds, dagger-grass, and some cat- 

 tail flags. Numerous insects congregate in the brackish waters of 

 the marshes, affording food for plover, gulls, and innumerable 

 waterfowl. These streams afforded the last fresh water that we 

 found on the western shore of the lake. 



Friday^ May 17. — Moved camp, taking with us in the boats the 

 shore party, who wished to be landed south of the marshes and 

 mud-flats they had waded through yesterday. The flat where we 

 landed was six miles wide, and covered, in many places, with salt. 

 The nearest wood was at a point of bluff which bounded the plain 

 to the westward. Transporting fuel on men's shoulders, this dis- 



