EOUTE AROUND THE SOUTH END OF SALT LAKE. 265 



the Soda Springs before reaching Goose Creek, and would, from 

 all the information I have' been able to collect, pass over much 

 more eligible ground. From the city to the crossing of Bear 

 River and the Malade, (a distance of eighty miles,) I know the 

 ground, from personal observation, to be unexceptionable. Thence, 

 since the trace pursues a course as far south of the breaks of the 

 northern rim of the basin as it is possible, on account of the lake, 

 it is fair to presume that the inequalities of the ground will be 

 much less than by the proposed route from the Soda Springs. 



Any line from the Wahsatch Mountains to the valley of the 

 Humboldt, north of the Salt Lake, cannot but prove exceedingly ex- 

 pensive, for the reasons just given. 



But by passing south of it, a line can, I think, be found which 

 would be comparatively free from this objection. After reaching 

 the Utah Valley by the Timpanogas canon, the road might either 

 be carried to Salt Lake City on the eastern side of the Jordan 

 Valley, and thence to the south shore of the lake at Black Bock ; 

 or it might cross the Jordan at the traverse range near its 

 canon, follow down the western side of the same valley, and 

 doubling the south extremity of the Oquirrh Mountain, reach 

 the south shore of the lake at the same point, viz. Black Rock. 

 From Black Rock the route would follow near to the shore of 

 the lake as far as Strong's Knob, unless further examination 

 should discover a practicable passage through the range of which 

 it is the northern extremity, and which forms the western boundary 

 of Spring Valley. The route thus far from Salt Lake City would be 

 over an absolutely horizontal plain. From Strong's Knob, the same 

 level desert plain extends westward for seventy or eighty miles, to 

 the Pilot Peak range of hills, which, following the general law of the 

 great mountain ranges in this region, extends from north to south. 

 Having myself traversed this desert from the northern end of the 

 Lake to Pilot Peak, and thence to Black Rock on its extreme 

 southern shore, I can speak with confidence as to its character. 

 It is one uniform, level plain, without verdure, and presents ground 

 for a road that is absolutely faultless. 



Westward of the range referred to I have not penetrated ; but, 

 reasoning from the structure of similar ridges in this part of the 

 basin, — which are generally short, abrupt, and disconnected pro- 

 trusions above the general level of the country, having broad level 

 plains between them, — little doubt is entertained that a passage 

 can, without much difficulty, be traced through to the heads of the 



