10 
FROM GREAT SALT LAKE TO GREEN RIVER. * 
access at all times, and become entirely inaccessible during the prevalence of deep snows, pro¬ 
ducing at once great scarcity of fuel in that city. The passage of the uninhabited mountain 
to the east, at such times, by the ordinary road leading over it, which, of course, is not kept 
open, is entirely impracticable; and the mail which passes monthly to and from Independence, 
Mo., is carried on pack-mules, which subsist themselves almost entirely on the grass along 
the route, by way of the Weber river canon—the object in part of our present explorations, 
which will, however, be continued eastward to the valley of Green river.* 
April 5.—On the afternoon of the fifth of April we reached the mouth of this canon at 
the immediate base of the Wahsatch mountains, where it opens into the valley of Great Salt 
lake, thirty miles north of the city, and about seventeen from the mouth of the river, which 
we immediately crossed to its right bank. This river at this season of the year (not yet 
swollen by the melting snows of the mountains) is thirty yards wide, by from one to three feet 
in depth, flowing with a rapid, powerful current over a bed of water-worn stones and fallen rocks 
of all sizes, from pebbles to immense blocks of the adjacent mountain. Our altitude at this point 
was 73 feet above the city of Great Salt Lake, and 4,424 feet above the sea. Entering the pass, 
we at once left the usual low-water trail, which frequently crosses the river, and followed a pre¬ 
cipitous and rocky path leading over the retreating craggy sides of the canon, so steep that .a 
single mis-step would have precipitated both mule and rider into the foaming torrent, hundreds 
of feet below us. At some points the precipitous sides of this passage become almost vertical. 
The mountains rise, we judged, from 1,500 to 2,500 feet above the river, and are separated at 
the base by a passage averaging 175 yards in width, in which the river winds from side to 
side, frequently impinging against the the bases of the mountains. At one point only, near the 
upper end of the gorge, which is four miles in length, the river is narrowed to one half its 
usual width, having cut a passage 20 or 30 feet in depth through the solid rock, which on the 
north side overhangs the stream, which, by a low projecting mass, is deflected from its course 
for a few yards at nearly a right angle, but again almost immediately resumes its direction; 
the canon, as it is called—and at some points it well deserves the name—being remarkably 
direct in its general course. Above this gorge the mountain opens rapidly to the right and left, 
* One of the most striking features to the traveller in our extensive and inhospitable interior country, after reaching the Rocky 
mountains from the east, in whatever direction he may travel in it, is the vast field of mountains which everywhere meets the 
eye. J hese mountains are sometimes formidable and united, their summits perpetually enveloped in snow, but more generally 
broken and disconnected, or partially united by projecting spurs or low connecting ridges, retaining snow but a portion of the 
year. They conform, with considerable exceptions, but not sufficient to impair its generality, in their greatest length to a general 
northern and southern direction, but frequently varying many degrees from the meridian. The great Rocky mountain range, by 
the line of our last and present years’ explorations, consists, towards the east, of the Sierra Blanca range, in which are the passes 
of the Sangre de Cristo, and of Roubideau and Williams, united at the head of the San Luis valley with the Sierra San Juan; or 
at this point the range may be said to divide the two branches, under different names, extending far to the southward, enclosing 
the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte; the western or San Juan range eventually becoming the Sierra Madre of Mexico. 
Northward from the Sierra Blanca, the range is more or less broken by the valley of the Arkansas river, but preserves its general 
course, surmounted by Pike’s and Janes’ peaks, to the Cheyenne and Bridger’s passes, and thence to the South Pass, where, 
nothwithstanding the great elevation of the country, its mountainous appearance is in a great measure lost, although the country 
is still very hilly and rolling, snd in the distance high mountain peaks are ever visible. North of the South Pass, for some distance, 
the Rocky mountains again become lofty and again branch, sending out to the south a formidable range, known in various portions 
under different names, but generally as the Bear river and Wahsatch range, broken by the passage of Bear, Weber, Timpanogos, 
and Sevier river in their western course, but enclosing to the west the valley of Green river. Thus these three ranges, with 
their spurs and connecting ridges, form, on the line of our explorations, the main features of the Rocky mountains. But the 
country to the west is scarcely less mountainous; and as we become familiar with it in pursuing our explorations in various direc¬ 
tions, it presents to our minds one vast field of mountains, interspersed with arid valleys from the Rocky mountains to the Sierra 
Nevada, and from the British possessions far southward into Mexico. The most extensive valley susceptible of cultivation in 
this whole extent of territory is that occupied by the Mormons, which is supplied with water for irrigation by the extensive fields of 
perpetual snow which are found on the mountain summits in their vicinity. And I may observe, generally, that fields of perpetual 
snow, affording ?r "nfailing supply of water for irrigation, are an indispensable pre-requisite for their cultivation, and hence for 
their occupation, w natever may be the character of the soil of the valleys, in every portion of this territory in which I have 
travelled—a district extending from the northern boundary of Mexico to the waters of the Columbia river, and, by different 
route. 0 , from New Mexico and the Arkansas river to the Sierra Nevada. 
