CACHE CAVE — SUMMIT — YELLOW CREEK. 225 



bling turrets, bastions, &c. Yesterday numerous places were ob- 

 served in the high cliffs below, where a black and apparently viscid 

 substance, resembling mineral tar, had oozed out between the 

 strata and trickled down the face of the cliffs. This would seem to 

 indicate the vicinity of coal, although no other evidence of its pre- 

 sence was discovered. 



From the mouth of Echo Creek to Cache Cave, a distance of five 

 and a-half miles, the cliffs begin to disappear, the rocks cropping 

 out only occasionally through the soil, and the hills gradually di- 

 minishing in height. From Cache Cave, (which is merely a small 

 hole or grotto in a large gray-sandstone rock appearing in a low 

 bluff on the left,) the route winds up the valley of Echo Creek, 

 and ascends a pretty steep hill to the dividing ridge between the 

 waters of the Weber and Yellow Creek, a tributary of Bear River, 

 into which it discharges its waters about six miles below. 



Here it was evident that the road should not have followed the 

 valley of Echo Creek at all, but should have continued up the 

 valley of E-ed Fork, from <' Chicken-cock Bluff" to a depression in 

 the hills to the northward, leading over into Yellow Creek, by 

 which the route would have been shortened as well as much im- 

 proved. From this ridge the Weber Mountains can be seen 

 through the Red Fork Kanyon, distant about twenty miles, and 

 also the mountains beyond Camass Prairie. 



From the observations taken from this elevation, there is every 

 indication that by following up the valley of Yellow Creek to its 

 head, a good route may be obtained over to the waters of the Weber 

 before it enters Camass Prairie, by which the whole descent of Red 

 Fork can be avoided, and also the consequent necessity of the 

 ascent of the Weber for twenty miles to that beautiful meadow, 

 whence, as before remarked, the route to the Timpanogas is as 

 level as a floor. Here the roads might fork, one leading to Utah 

 Lake, by the Timpanogas, and the other, by Silver Creek, Bauch- 

 min's and Golden Pass Creeks, to Great Salt Lake City. Any ex- 

 ploration, for either a railroad or a permanent mail route through 

 this region, should embrace a careful examination of the country 

 in this vicinity. 



Encamped on the banks of Yellow Creek, which is about three 

 feet wide, with steep banks, and fringed with willows, but no timber. 

 Day's march, seventeen miles. Distance from Salt Lake City 

 eighty-two miles. Lat. 41° 09' 00'^2 ; long. 111° 14' 13''. 



Wednesday/, September 4. — Morning quite cool. Ther. at sun- 



15 



