Sierra Club Bulletin 



Across the gaunt deserts of the Great Basin Walker led his 

 party, following down Mary's River,^ afterwards called the 

 Humboldt, discovering rivers and a chain of lakes,* and find- 

 ing the course of all streams westward barred by a great north 

 and south mountain barrier, the "Snowy Range," its crest of 

 great height and unbroken by any low pass or river gorge. 

 Walker scaled this range, the Sierra Nevada, being the first 

 white man across it, descended the western slope along or near 

 the waters of the Merced River,^ discovered^ and camped in 

 Yosemite Valley, November 13, 1833, and passed the follow- 

 ing winter in winter quarters at Monterey, the Mexican capital 

 of Alta California. 



The following spring Walker returned with his party to the 

 rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains, following essentially the 

 same route except that he passed out of the San Joaquin by 

 way of Walker's Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada. This 

 accomplishment was a great exploit in western exploration and 

 Walker rejoined Bonneville after a highly successful trip. For 

 the first time the vast desert of the Great Basin had been con- 

 quered, many lakes and rivers had been discovered, and it had 

 been determined that the Sierra Nevada rose as an unbroken 

 wall barring the western way for many hundreds of miles north 

 and south. Most important was Walker's discovery that no 

 river, the "Buenaventura" or any other, had its source or head- 

 waters at the Great Salt Lake and emptied into San Francisco 

 Bay or the Pacific Ocean, as represented on all the maps of the 

 times.'^ All these important facts in geography are shown on 

 the map^ accompanying the first and second editions of the 

 narrative of the Adventures of Captain Bonneville by Wash- 

 ington Irving. The results of the California expedition are, 

 obviously, to be placed primarily to the credit of Walker. 



' cf. Bancroft, "History of California," Vol. Ill, pp. 389-392. 



* Humboldt Lake, Walker Lake, Walker River, Mono Lake, etc. 

 ' Nidever, 1. c, p. 62. 



• Appleton's Cycl. Am. Biog., Vol. VI, p. 328. Munro-Fraser, "History of Con- 

 tra Costa County," pp. 688-690 (1882). 



^ Compare, for example. Col. J. J. Aberts' U. S. Map of Oregon Territory, 1838. 



^ Bonneville's map, which is reproduced in the Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. XI, 

 plate 4, gives the first generally accurate view of the courses of the Sacramento 

 and the San Joaquin rivers, of the Humboldt River and its series of lakes, and of 

 the land-locked character of the Great Salt Lake. 



