34 THE TRUCKEE AND HUMBOLDT VALLEYS. 
salts, looking like a snow field as it glistens in the sunlight. 
The mountains, most fantastic in outline, which border the 
valley, are enveloped in a gauze-like mist which seems to 
‘preclude all further inquiry into the features of the anom- 
alous landscape. There is no live color in the scene. Even 
the greens with which nature usually relieves her more 
rugged details, are here wanting, except in the case of the 
tules above mentioned. Still there is a strangely fascinating 
and weird beauty in the view peculiar to these deserts. 
Here the Humboldt which begun its course far away as a fair 
young stream, expands into a lake, and becoming disgusted 
with its vitiated life commits suicide by self-burial. Hence 
the spot is known as the Sink of the Humboldt. At the 
sink proper, the water is intensely alkaline and disgusting 
to the taste, and the atmosphere is filled with noxious vapors 
and miasms. The legions of mosquitoes which infest the 
tules are the food of numerous water-fowl, to whom I can- 
didly wish all success in their warfare upon the insects. 
Among the birds a black swan is said to appear at times, 
but I did not have the fortune to see one if any such occur. 
Above the lake the Humboldt is a narrow, sluggish and ser- 
pentine stream, hardly wider than an eastern creck and 
totally lacking its vivacity. The water is turbid and un- 
pleasant to the taste. The fish which frequent it are when 
cooked soft and tasteless. Nota tree adorns the last hun- 
dred miles of the stream, low willows and Shepherdia being 
the nearest approach to arborescent growth. The lofty 
range of West Humboldt mountains are now in sight, whose 
highest point, Star Peak, rises to an altitude of nine thou- 
sand nine hundred and sixty feet above the sea. From the 
great height of the range, its direction north and south in 
conformity with the trend of the other ridges, its frequent 
water courses giving life and beauty to narrow belts of lux- 
uriant vegetation, and the wide prospect to be obtained from 
its many commanding points, it affords numerous subjects 
for consideration. Many deep cañons channel its rugged 
f 
