198 



EETURN TO THE WESTERN SHORE. 



how or when the removal had been effected it was impossible for un 

 to discover. 



Thursday, June 6. — ^We left this encampment with reluctance, 

 as it was the most pleasant one we had yet made in our peregri- 

 nations around the lake, and pitched our tents once more upon the 

 inhospitable flats of the main western shore. As it was necessary 

 to get a full view of our present position, which it was impossible 

 to obtain unless from some elevation, I started on foot, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Carrington, for a peak some seven miles to the 

 southward, crossing a broad mud-plain, bordered on the right by 

 a range of hills running off to the north-west. Upon reaching the 

 eminence, it was found to be part of a ridge or rocky projection 

 putting down to the border of the lake from the north-west. It 

 rose abruptly from an immense flat of sand and mud, extending 

 some ten miles westward to the base of another similar ridge, at 

 the northern termination of which we had halted in October last, 

 the day previous to crossing the field of salt and reaching Pilot 

 Peak. To the southward the flat continued unbroken by the least 

 elevation for an apparently indefinite distance. 



The question which now presented itself was in what way 

 this sterile desert was to be surveyed. Apart from the con- 

 sideration of time and expense, water was only to be procured 

 by crossing the lake, bringing it to the shore, and then pack- 

 ing it on the backs of my crew for the chain party. This was 

 obviously impossible, as they could not carry enough in that 

 way to supply both the shore party and themselves while pas- 

 sing to and fro over the plain. In addition to this difficulty, 

 how were the provisions to be carried and cooked ? These con- 

 siderations induced me to hesitate in risking the lives of my 

 people by attempting to penetrate this desert, where the slightest 

 derangement of the measures by which they were to be supplied 

 with water might prove fatal. The appearance of the plain indi- 

 cated that the lake had not been over it for very many years, for 

 it was thickly grown up with grease-wood ; and the great proba- 

 bility, if not positive certainty was, that, as the waters were 

 evidently in a state of subsidence, they would never again over- 

 flow it. As, therefore, my object was to survey the shore of the 

 lake in its present stage, I determined to abandon, in this instance, 

 the storm-line, and to run the line of survey to a point west of 

 the water, as it then was, and thence to strike across the flat to 

 Strong' s Knob, triangulating upon the prominent points of the 



