18 
KAMAS PRAIRIE.—TIMPANOGOS RIYER AND CANON. 
and ravines. The sun shone bright and clear during the afternoon, and dried our drenched 
clothes. The accompanying sections of the routes explored hy the Weher and Timpanogos 
canones, branch at our camp of the 7th instant on White Clay creek, the former descending 
the Weher, and the latter ascending it. 
April 20.—The wind, which had changed to northwest during the afternoon yesterday, 
returned to southwest last night, and the morning came in with a gentle cold rain, which 
increased during the day to heavy showers at short intervals. The width of the Weher valley, 
within the low hills, between our morning camp and Kamas prairie, varies from two or three 
miles to a few hundred yards; hut we soon passed above the altitude of green grass, although 
the whole face of the country was covered with the growth of last year. It was 12 miles to 
Kamas prairie, which is five or six miles wide hy eight and seven-tenths miles in length, and, 
to the eye, is as level as a sheet of water. The Weher river descends to it from the east, flows 
across its northern end, and thence descends to Gfreat Salt lake, hy our ascending path. A 
stream, ten or 12 feet wide, winds through the prairie, entering Weher river at the northwest 
angle of the meadow. It is seen descending from a mountain ravine on the east side of the 
plain, six miles distant. A mile to the south of this ravine is the divide between the Weher 
and Timpanogos rivers—if so slight a change of level deserves the name of divide—the latter 
flowing at the base of a snowy range of mountains terminating the prairie to the south. We 
attempted to ride directly across the prairie, hut found it so miry that we were obliged to turn 
hack and keep, along the base of the hills to the west, reaching the Timpanogos where it leaves 
the prairie. The average grade from our camp of April 7, on White Clay creek, to our morn¬ 
ing’s camp, 5.25 miles, was 3.80 feet per mile; and 53.90 feet per mile for 12 miles thence 
to Kamas prairie; and across the prairie to Timpanogos river, 8.70 miles, 8.80 feet per mile— 
the altitude of the prairie at Weher river being 6,319 feet above the sea. Below the prairie 
the Timpanogos river descends in a bottom varying from 100 to 250 yards in width, covered 
hy cotton-wood. It is enclosed on the south hy mountains, and on the north hy high walls of a 
coarse feldspathic granite, from one to two hundred feet high. The stream is twenty-five feet 
wide, with a rapid current. This bottom is entirely free from snow, and sufficiently wide and 
elevated above the river to admit of an easy construction of a railroad. 
We encamped some two miles from the prairie and river, on its right hank, among the hills. 
April 21.—It continued to rain during the whole of last night, and this morning snow was 
mixed with the falling rain; hut after being two or three hours on the road, we passed below 
the storm, which continued about the higher mountain peaks throughout the day. We returned 
to the Timpanogos river at the lowest point on it visible to us from Kamas prairie last evening, 
its valley being here half a mile wide, and, for three miles, very miry from the great amount 
of rain recently fallen upon it, and covered with willows. We therefore kept along the base 
of the hills, and occasionally passed over considerable spurs extending into the valley. Below 
this the stream enters a broad open valley, several miles in diameter, called Round prairie, in 
which it receives small tributaries from the east and south. In this prairie the grazing is very 
fine; and the valleys and mountain sides along our path, throughout the day, were covered 
with the finest fresh grass from an inch in height at our morning camp, to eight inches at 
that of this-evening. In the prairie the stream bends more to the west, and preserves this 
course, as the valley narrows to a few hundred yards in width as we approached the eastern 
base of the narrow Wahsatch chain. Entering the mountain, the valley becomes still more 
narrow, and in a short distance quite disappears, and the passage becomes a formidable canon, 
in which the general course of the river is very direct; but the hills or mountain spurs, which 
extend down to it, slightly overlap each other, giving it a zigzag line upon a small scale, the 
projecting points overlapping but a few feet, and are generally not high. The southern bank 
is much the most abrupt, the wall becoming so nearly vertical as to be inaccessible. The rock 
at the base is chiefly a hard blue limestone, capped towards the summit of the mountain, with 
a stratum of argillaceous sandstone of great thickness. On the north side of the river, the 
