226 THE NEEDLES — BEAR RIVER — COAL BED — TAR SPRINGS. 



rise, 31°. In a quarter of a mile the road turns abruptly to the 

 right and follows up Needle Creek, (a branch of Yellow Creek,) 

 with a gentle ascent, passing a ridge crowned with broken pointed 

 crags of conglomerate, which, from the acicular form of the pro- 

 jections, has gained for it the name of '' The Needles." Ascending 

 to the head of this stream, we descend into the valley of Bear 

 Eiver, the Ioav bottom of which is here about a mile and a-half 

 wide, and thickly covered with clumps of cotton-wood. The river 

 is about four hundred feet in width, two and a-half in depth, flowing 

 with a strong current over a bed of large pebbles. Crossing this 

 stream the road keeps the valley of Sulphur Creek for about two 

 miles, where we halted to noon, near an excellent spring of good 

 cold water. A meridian observation gave for latitude 41° 08' 08''. 28. 



A short distance north of the road, and on the north bank of 

 the creek, a bed of bituminous coal was discovered, between two 

 nearly vertical dikes of light-gray coarse-grit sandstone, one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet apart, the course of which is north, 30° east. 

 The outcrop was about eight feet wide by four feet thick, and was 

 only visible against the south side of the north dike. It appeared 

 to be quite an extensive deposite, but its depth and width can only 

 be ascertained by further examination. Specimens of it, although 

 much weathered, burned in the camp-fire with a clear, bright fiame. 

 The seam had a direction apparently the same as that of the dikes, 

 with a dip of 70° S., 70° E. From the base of the blufi" is- 

 sued several sulphur springs, and south about a mile and a-half, 

 a spring of Petrolium, or mineral tar, oozes from the low bank of a 

 little rivulet flowing into the valley of Sulphur Creek from the 

 south-west. The emigrants collect it for medicinal purposes and 

 for greasing their wagon-wheels. The bank from which it issues is 

 full of rolled pebbles, but no ledge is visible. 



From this point to the southward lay a broad expanse of 

 country, considerably lower than our level, stretching away toward 

 the heads of Bear Biver. To the south-east a little park of timber 

 grew near the bluff's which form what is termed the "Bim of the 

 Basin," and from which flow the heads of Sulphur Creek : to the 

 eastward a low table extended toward the heads of the Muddy, a 

 tributary of the Colorado of the Gulf of California. 



Beturning to our place of nooning, we again struck into the road, 

 and, passing over a level country for two or three miles, we at length 

 ascended the ridge dividing the waters which discharge themselves 

 within the Great Basin, from those which flow into the Pacific. 



