ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-EIGHTH AND THIRTY-NINTH PARALLELS. 
73 
Of tlie direct route from the point at the western base of the Un-kuk-oo-ap mountains—ele¬ 
vation 5,131 feet, distance from Westport 1,323 miles, where the survey under Captain 
Gunnison terminated—to the Tay-ee-chay-pah Pass, there is no positive information or survey. 
Colonel Fremont says, page 270 of his report for 1842, ’43, ’44, that from the time he descended 
from Walker’s Pass and began “to skirt” the desert, till he reached the vegas of Santa Clara, 
“he had travelled 550 miles, occupying 27 days in that inhospitable region and that “in 
passing before the great caravan , he had the advantage of finding more grass,” &c. And again, 
he speaks of the journey as “a month’s suffering in the hot and sterile desert.” This, in 
connexion with Colonel Fremont’s description of other parts of the Great Basin, gives every 
reason to believe that from Sevier lake to the Tay-ee-chay-pah Pass it is, for the most part, a 
desert of the same general character as other portions of the Great Basin. Supposing the 
route to he a straight line, with uniform descent from the Un-kuk-oo-ap mountains to the 
entrance of the Tay-ee-chay-pah Pass, in latitude 35° 7', (no pass being known to he practicable 
to the north of it, in this portion of the Sierra Nevada,) the distance will he 430 miles, and 
the descent 1,830 feet; the equated horizontal distance, 464 miles. 
From the entrance of the Tay-ee-chay-pah Pass to San Francisco is 326 miles; sum of 
ascents, 1,308 feet; sum of descents, 4,608 feet; equated length, 438 miles. Adding these 
together with the equated distance from the mouth of the Kansas to the west base of Un- 
kuk-oo-ap mountains, we have the total equated distance from Westport to San Francisco— 
3,025 miles; the length of the straight horizontal line, which supposes no obstacle to he 
avoided, being only 1,500 miles. 
The straight line from St. Louis to San Francisco is 1,740 miles long; it crosses the Kocky 
mountains in about latitude 39° 13', the Wahsatch in about latitude 39°, the Sierra Nevada in 
about latitude 38° 6'; it is 110 miles north of the Sandy Hill Pass, 75 miles north of Coo-che-to-pa, 
and about coincides with the north bend of Grand river; is 20 miles north of the Wahsatch 
Gap, and 225 miles north of Tay-ee-chay-pah Pass. 
From the Sevier river a practicable connection can he made with the route surveyed by 
Lieut. Beckwith, near the forty-first parallel, through the Great Basin. 
The distance from Sevier river, at the crossing of the Mormon road to Salt lake, is 120 
miles, sum of ascents and descents 1,600 feet, and equated distance 150 miles ; thence to 
Benicia is 872 miles, sum of ascents and descents 15,200 feet, and equated distance 1,160 
miles ; from Westport to Sevier river 1,298 miles, the sum of the ascents and descents are 
39,714 feet, and equated distance 2,050 miles. Taking the sum of these three portions, we 
have from Westport to Benicia, via Coo-che-to-pa Pass, Great Salt lake, and Madelin Pass, 
a distance of 2,290 miles, sum of ascents and descents of 56,514 feet, and an equated distance 
of 3,360 miles. 
Note. —This line could, perhaps, be considerably shortened by taking a direct route from Sevier river to the pass of the 
Humboldt mountains; but it has not been explored. The straight-line distance between these points is 200 miles, while 
by the route surveyed it is 280 miles. 
10a 
