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Show 198 RETURN TO THE WESTERN SHORE. how or when the removal had been effected it was impossible for u* to discover. Thursdayj June 6.- We left this encampment with reluctance, as it was the most pleasant one we had yet made in our peregrinations around the lake, and pitched our tents once more upon the inhospitable flats of the main western shore. As it was necessary to get a full view of our present position, which it was impossible to obtain unless from some elevation, I started on foot, in company with Mr. Carrington, for a peak some seven miles to the southward, crossing a broad mud- plain, bordered on the right by a range of hills running off to the north- west. Upon reaching the eminence, it was found to be part of a ridge or rocky projection putting down to the border of the lake from the north- west. It rose abruptly from an immense flat of sand and mud, extending some ten miles westward to the base of another similar ridge, at the northern termination of which we had halted in October last, the day previous to crossing the field of salt and reaching Pilot Peak. To the southward the flat continued unbroken by the least elevation for an apparently indefinite distance. The question which now presented itself was in what way this sterile desert was to be surveyed. Apart from the consideration of time and expense, water wife only to be procured by crossing the lake, bringing it to the shore, and then packing it on the backs of my crew for the chain party. This was obviously impossible, as they could not carry enough in that way to supply both the shore party and themselves while passing to and fro over the plain. In addition to this difficulty, how were the provisions to be carried and cooked? These considerations induced me to hesitate in risking the lives of my people by attempting to penetrate this desert, where the slightest derangement of the measures by which they were to be supplied with water might prove fatal. The appearance of the plain indicated that the lake had not been over it for very many years, for it was thickly grown up with grease- wood; and the great probability, if not positive certainty was, that, as the waters were evidently in a state of subsidence, they would never again overflow it. As, therefore, my object was to survey the shore of the lake in its present stage, I determined to abandon, in this instance, the storm- line, and to run the line of survey to a point west of the water, as it then was, and thence to strike across the flat to Strong's Knob, triangulating upon the prominent points of the |