324 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
and five hundred miles square, of sandy and hardpan waste! 
Little is known of the central parts of this desert. The old 
trapper who explored Severe River, saw a part of it. All its 
borders have been traversed more or less. The Indians, how¬ 
ever, give accounts of its whole surface. They say that during 
their ancient wars, unsuccessful parties were driven into its 
depths and perished for want of water and food, and that 
those who pursued them often met the same fate. Their le¬ 
gends and their own knowledge lead them to affirm that it is 
one entire desolation, with an occasional spot of green herbs 
growing by pools of salt and bitter waters. 
Captain Young, whom I met in Oregon, made an attempt to 
cross from Lake Timpanigos to Upper California. His 
supposition was, that by travelling eastward, he should strike 
the Severe River at some point where it rose from the sands, 
and following its course, should be led to the bay of San Fran¬ 
cisco. He therefore loaded twenty mules with dried grass at 
the mountains south of the lake, and with twenty men, and 
a scanty supply of dried meat, commenced his journey on foot 
over four hundred miles of desert! The sequel of this under¬ 
taking of the gallant old beaver trader, was, that having 
travelled until his animals had exhausted their supply of fod¬ 
der, and had all died, he cut food from their carcasses for 
himself and men, and commenced his return to the lake. On 
their backward way five of his men perished. ' The captain 
and the remainder reached the lake in a wretched condition. 
This was the last attempt to explore this awful waste. And 
long will it be, ere man can know the silent gloom and hor¬ 
rors of its dreadful depths. 
On the northwest side of this Desert is a partially fruitful 
region, called the Vale of Mary’s River. This stream has its 
source in the Snowy Mountains, about three hundred miles 
from the Pacific Ocean, and, running southwestwardly about 
one hundred and sixty miles, empties into its own lake This 
lake is about sixty miles in length, N. and S, and about 
thirty in breadth. It has received so much sediment from the 
