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Show [ 174 ] 132 out a foot in breadth and several inches deep, directly from the hill side. At noon we halted at tile last main fork of the creek, at an elevation of 7 200 feet, and in latitude, by observation, 41° 39' 45"; and in the afternoon ~on. tinued on the same excelleut road, up the left or nortllern fOl'lc of the stream, towards its head, in a pass wh!ch the barometer placed at 8,230 feet above the sea. This is a connecting ndgc between the Utah or Bear river mountains and the 'Vind river chain of the Rocky mountain , separatinet the waters of the gulf of California on the east, and those on the west be~ longina more directly to the Pacific, from a vast interior basin whose rivers are collecLCd into numerous lakes having 110 outlet to the ocean. From the summit of this pass, tho highest wllich the road crosses between the Missis. sippi and the Western ocean, our view was ovrr a very mouutainous region whose rugged appearance ~vas greatly increased ?Y the smoky weather: through which the broken ndges w~re dark and dnnly seen. The ascent to the summit of the gap wa:j occaswnally steeper than the uatinual road in the Alleghauies; and the desceut, by way of a spur on the western side, is rather precipitous, but the pass may- sllll be called a good one. Some thickets of willow iu the hollows below deceived ns into the expectation of finding a camp at our usual hour at the foot of the mountain; but we found them without water, and continped dowu a ravine, and eucampeu about dark at a place where the springs again began to malw their appearance, but where our auima)s fared badly; the stock of the emigrants having razed the grass as completely as if we were again in the midst of the buffalo . .llugusL .91.-Au hour's travel this morning brought ns into the fNiile and picturesque valley of llear river, the principal tributary to the Great Salt lake. The stream is here 200 feet wide, fringed with willows and occasional groups o[ hawthorns. \Ve were now entering a region which for us po!'scssed a strange and extraordinary interest. We were upou the waters of the famous lake which forms a salient point among the remarlin· ble geographical features of the country, and aronnd which the vague and superstitious accounts of the trappers had thrown a dclightfl.ll obscurily, which we anticipated pleaRnre in dispelling, hut. which, in tile mean time, left a crowdcJ field for the exercise of our imagination. In our occasional conversations with the few old hunters who had visited the region, it had be 'n a subject of frel!Uent specnlatiou; and the wonders which they related were not the less agreeable because they were highly exaggerated and impossible. Hitherto this lake had been seen only by trappers who were wandering through the country in search of new beaver streams, caring very little for geography; its islands had never been visited ; and none were to be found who had entirely made the circuit of its shores; and 110 instrumental ob· servations or geographical survey, of any description, had ever been mad.e any where in the neighboring region. It was generally supposed that Il had no visible outlet; but among the trappers, including those in my own camp, were many who believed that somewhere on its surface was a ter· rible whirlpool, through which its waters found their way to the ocean by so~e subterr~ncan. co~munication. All these things had made a frequent S';lbJect of dtscusswn m our desultory conversations around the fi1:es .at mght_; an~ my own mind had become tolerably well filled with t~el~ 10· de~mte. pictures, and insensibly colored with their romantic de ·?nptwns, wlnch, m the pleasure of excitentept, I was well disposed to believe, and half expected to realize. |