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Show L 243 J 58 afternoon we had a 8evere storm of hail , and encamped nt sunset on the fir~t New Fork. Within the spnce of a few miles 1he Wind mountain~ supply a number of tributaries to Green river, which are all called the New Fork~. Nenr our camp were two remarkable i olatcd hill~, one of them sufficiently lar~e to merit _the name of mountain. They nrc called the 'l'wo Buttes, ~nd will ~erve to_ Identify the place of onr encampment, which the observations of the evenll10' placed iu lon o·itudc 110° 29' 17" nnd latitnde 42° 4~' 46'' . . On the _righfbank o~ the stream, opposite to ;he large hill , th? strata winch are d1splnyed consist of dccomro ing grnnite, which supp_ ltes the brown sand of whtch the face of the country is composed to a conSiderable depth. Au~ust 10.-The ai~· at sunrise is clear and pnre, and the morning cx~ remely cold, but beauttfnl. _A lofty snow penk of the monntain is glittering m the first rays o~ll_1e sun, whtch has not yet reached ns. The Jon~ mountain wal_l to the east rl"mg tw? th_ousand feet abruptly from the plain, behind whtch we see the peaks, 1 ~ still dark, and cuts clear a<Jainst the <Jlowi no· skY:. A fog, jnst ris_cn from the ri\'er, lies along the bas: of the nt~untain~ A little before sn_nn~e I be, thermometer was at 35o, and at snnrise 33o. Wat~r froz~ l~st u.1g-h_t, and itres are very comf~rtable. The scenery becomes houtl_y mot c '.ntet est mg and g_rand, and the v1ew here is truly magnificent; bur., Indeed~ It n,eeds ~omethtn g to repay the long prairie journey of a thousand miles. fhe sun has just shot above the wall, and makes a mno·ica_ l chang-e. The wh~lc valley is glowing- and bri<Jht, and all the mou~ttmn peaks nrc gl<'ammg like silver. 'T'hong-h 1hc. e: now mountains are not th? AI ps. they I: ave th eir own character otgrnndeu rand magnitiicence, and .will douhlless fitH.l pens and pen~ils to do them justice. In rhe scene before 1_1s ~e feel ho\~ m~1ch wood ·~proves a view. The pines on the mour_Halll ~eemed to g1ve It rnnch additiOnal beauty. I was ng-reeahly dis. appointe~ In the c_harncter ~f t_he streams on this side of the ridge. Instead ~f the c1e~ks whtch d?scnptwn had led me to expect, I find bold broad .. tr~ams , with three or fOl~r feet water a11d a rapid cnrrent. The fork on whtch we a:e encamped IS upwards of a hnndred feet wide, timbered with groves or thtcketr~ of th_e low willow. We were now approachin(J' the lofli est part of the ·" Ind. R1 ver chain, and I left the valley a few mile~ from our e~ca~p~ent, mtendmg to penetrate tl1e mountains as f[rr as possible with ; e w -~ e purty. We _were soon involved in very broken crround amoncr ong fl rse covered with fragments of granite. vVinding our \~a T ll ~ ~~~g TaVHle_: we came nn ~xpected ly in view of a most bea.. .u tiful Ja!Ie ~e·t t~,e 3· <ren:- ln the mormtmns. The sheet of water lay transversely 't~ross . c 1rect10n . \Ve had heen pursuing-; and, descrndinO' rhe s:tee (.roc!·· ridge, where It was nccc~sar y to lead our hor 'CS we rollo\ved ..I.. t lp, I ' y the s th . · . · ' 11 s Jan cs to ' 0 11 ern ext I emlfy. Here a VIew of the n tmo ... t macrni ficence nnd ~~~~:•~r ~~~l:~~e~£~~ 11onr e:~s. 1 Will' nothing- between us"' and .!heir 'feet tain . . _le w o e ~etg H, a g-rand bed of c::now-capped mounO'Usts ~ose b~tOJe ~l_s, r,tle upon ptlc, glowing in the bright li~·ht of an An~ ny. . mme ra~e Y bcl~w them lay I he lnkc bet we ...n two rido-es ~~~~~:~l;~~t~~ed~uk pllles, Wblch swept down from the main chain tO n1~ its banks of vel~~~vd~an~c~~;dw:~lere_~he lal~~ <Jiittered in the open sunlight, well with tl1.e <rio · e 11oht foll.lgc of aspen g-roves con lrasted )--, omy ptnc~ "Neve· 1 ~ " ·d c. co11ntry or in Enrope hav ·[· 1 1 1c ore: sn1 Mr. PretJs;s, " in thi ~ so mncll pleased wit!; tl~ eb _se~n S}lCll mng-mficcnt, g-rnnd rocks." I wn~ e e-.u Y o t 1e place that I determined to make ( ~ 59 [ 243 J the main camn here, where onr anim<ds would find good _rastur?ge, nnd explore the mountains with a small party of men. Procee~m_g a ht_tle further, we cante Sl,ddculy npon the outlet ~f the lake w~1c1 e It f?und It~ way tluono-h a narrow pas~ae-e between low lull . Dark pmes wh1ch o~ethung the st~eam and masses of rock whe1e the water foamed along gave It mucll romantic beauty. Where we crossed, which was imrnediat~ly a~ t!1e outlet, it is lwo hundred. aud fifty feet wide: and so d ~ep that with dtfhcu!ty we were able to fo rd it. Its bed was nn nccurnul at1on of rocks, bou I_ del s, and broad slabs, and large augular fragments, among which the ammals fell repeatedly. . The c urrent was verv swift and the water cold and of a crystal pnnty .. ln crossing this strcam,·I ntct ~vith a g reat misformnc in_ having my ba~om_eter broken. It was the only one; a gnat part of t~l e mt~rcst_ of the JOU tney for me wa in the exploration of th ese t ~lountn ltts , of whtch ~o much had been said that was doubtful and contn:u.lletory; and n ~ w. th e1 r snowy peaks rose mnjestically before me, and th<: ollly ~~~ans of gtv_Ing them anthenti ~ldly to science, the ohject of n:y anxrons so_ltcJtnde by mght nnd ~a~, was destroyed. We bad brought tlus h,arometer m ~nfcty ~t_,thonsnnd mtles, and broke it almost arnon(J' the snow cd the monntn tns. I he loss wns felt by the whole camp-all h~d seen my anxiety: and aided me in presPrviug it· the hcio-ht of th ese mountains considered l>y the hunters and traders th'e hio-hest in the whole ran<Jc. l;n.d been a theme of constant discussion amon; ...., them· and all had lo~kcd forward with pleasure to the moment when ° the instrn ment, which they bel ieved to be true as the sun, should stalld upon the summits :tnd decide their dispute . Their grief was only inferior to mv own. This lake. is ahout three miles long-, and of very irrc?"nlar width, and apparently great depth, and is the head water of tlJC third New F?rk, a tributary to Green river, the Colorado of the West. On the mnp and 1n _the narrative I have called it :Mountain lake. I cncatnped on the north side, abont thr~r. hundred and f1fty yards frotn the outlet. This was tl~e mo~t we .. tern point. at which I obla.i ned u ·tronomicn\ observations, by wluc~ th1s place, culled Bernier's encampment : i. made in ll 0° :37' 25" west lon gllu~e from Greenwich, and latitude 42° 40' 40''. The monn1ain peaks, as lmd down, were fixed by bearin~s from this and other astronomical points. \Ve had 110 other compass than the small oucs used in sketching the country; but from an azimuth, in which one of th em was u ed, the variation of the compass is 18° cast. 1,he correction made in our fi eld work by _the astronomical ouservations indicates that this is a very correct observatiOn . As soon as the camp was formed, I set about endeavoring to tepn.ir my barometer. As I have already ~aid, this was a standard cistern-barometer, of Tron<rll to 11's con trnc.tion. 'rhc o-lass cistcm had been broken about ;::., . . . mid way ; but as the instrnment had been kept in a proper positron, n~ mr had found its way into the tube, the end of wbich had always remamed coverrd. I had with 1ne a number of vials of tol erably thick o-]ass, some of which were of the same diameter as the <~istern, and I c::pcnt the day in slowly working on these, endeavoring to cut tl rern of the requisite length; but a my instrnment was a very rongh file, 1 iuvariably broke them. A g roove was cut in one of the trees, where the baromrter was placed during· the night, to be ont of the way of any poss ible danger, and in the morning I commenced ag-ain. Among the powder horus in the camp, I found one which was very transparent, so that its contents could be almost as plainly |
