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Show 116 NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. this point to Truckee river and meadows, see page 129. We will now take the left, and pass on towards the desert lying between this and Carson River. The Humboldt Lake is bounded on the south by a heavy sand ridge, except a single narrow ravine, to your left, which you cross near the foot of ~he lake, through which flows outwardly, fro1n the lake, a considerable stream, usually forty or fifty feet wide, and two or three deep, that, after winding around among sand hills, for about thre~ miles, opens out iuto meadows of tolerably good, though saltish, grass. In seasons of high water these meadows are entirely submerged; but if low, then emig~mnts usually make this a short resting place, previous to crossing the desert; therefore we say to the SALT MEADOWS . . . . . . . . . . • • • • . • . • . . . . • . • . . . . . • • . 3 These lie to the right of the main road ; grass fair in seasons of low water, but water poor either in the creek or wells that have been dug here by traders. There is usually a trading post or two here. You are now about io encounter the real desert portion of your route, and yet you may not find it-if your animals are in tolerable condition-half as bad as you have anticipated, and yet bad enough. Very many start out upon the desert about three .or four o'clock in the afternoon, and by traveling all night, reach Carson River, a distance of thirty-six miles, early in the morning. This night drive is peculiarly hard on men and your almost worn out animals, and as the latter seem to suffer quite as much from actual fatigu~ and want of sleep, as the want of grass or water for a single day, many prefer leaving the Salt Meadows early in the morning, say three or four o'clock, travel till nearly noon, which will take you two-thirds of the way over; t~e:c, after stopping two or three hours, and giving your animals all the grass and water that you have taken on to the desert for them, push on once more and arrive NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. 117 I at Carson River before dark. From the Salt Meadows you rise the sand bluffs or ridges, and then almost immediately enter upon THE DESERT. The road here for the greater part of the way is as smooth and as hard as a brick yard, and the plain around you for thousands of acres together, destitute of all vege-tation, till you reach SAL'f AND SULPHUR SPRINGS .................. 9 . In making this distance you will have seen, some distance to your right, a stream of water that in some places is spread out over a large surface of the barren level sands. In seasons of low water it all sinks in the sands, or is evaporated from the surface ; but when the water of the lake of the Humboldt is high, this stream flows along the desert eastwardly, and crosses the road near these springs, and as the water of this stream is not wholly unfit for animals, it often proves of service to large tlroves of stock. The plain or desert now changes to a succession of sand ridges and clay banks, nowhere elevated more than fifteen or twenty feet above the general level '· a little wild sa()'c and a few blades of grass ~ appear at intervals. The sandy portions make heavy wheeling, the clay banks good, but dusty. TO DEEP SAND PLAIN ........................... 15 This portion of the desert is slightly elevated above the twenty-four miles already passed, and is almost one continued bed of deep, heavy sand, to within one hundred rods of CARSON RIVER.. . . .................. · · . · · · · · · · · · 12 At a very early date in the history of overland emigra-tion, this place was called Ragtown, from the fact that every house, cabin, tent, or place to live in-and they were numerous then-was made of poles and cloth only, top and sides; or sides of cloth, and top or covering of • , , |