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Show ' [ 174 J 208 fir st wa t CI.S of tl1at Great Interior Basin sw· hi.c h Nha s thde Wr a.h .s atch and Be. ar river mountains for its eastern, and the teira eva a 101 Its western nm; and the edge of which we had entered upwards of three n1onths before, at the Great Salt lake. . . When we had su£11ciently adnur~d the .scene below, \VC began to thmk about dcscendiug, which here \Vas Impossible, and we tu!ned towards the north, travelling always along the rocky wall. vVe contmued on for four or five miles, makiug ineffectual attet:npts at several plac?s; and at length snccee dcd 1·11 O'ettinO' down at one which was extremely d1fficult of descent. Night had clob sed ino before the foremost. reache d tlle b ottom,.au d l·t was da r k before we all found ourselves together 111 the valley. Th01 e were thr~eor four half dead dry cedar trees on the shore, and those who first arnved kindled bright fires to light on the others. On.e of the n1ulcs rolle~ over and over tw.o or three hundred fee~ into a ravllle, but ~ecovered huns~lf, without auy other iuju.ry than. to h1s pack; ~nd ~he llowl.tz.cr was left. mid· '\Va the mountaiH uutil mornmg. By obse1 vatwn, the latitude of tins en· ca~pment is 42° 57' 22''. It delayed .us until near noon the next day to recover ourscl ves and put every thwg In orde~; a1~d we made ouly a short camp along the western shore of the lake, wluch, 111 t~1e sn~mer tempera· ture we enjoyed to-day, justified the nan1e we had g1ve~1 lt. Our course '\vonld have tnkcn hs to the other shore, and over the lu~hlands beyond ; but I distrusted the appearance of the country, and dec1ded to follow a plainly beaten Indian trail leading along this side of the lake. We were now in a country where the scarcity of water aud of grass makes travel-lino- dangerous, and great caution was necessary. . December 18.-We continued on the trail along the narrow stnp of land between the lake a11d the lligh rocky \vall, from which we ha.d lookc~ d~wn two days before. Aln1ost every half mile we cro~sed a Jt ttle sprmt>, or ~tream of pure col~ water; and the gr.ass was certamly as fresh ~n.d gre~ as in the early sprmg. Fro1n the wh1tc e.fflorescence al?ng the ~hore the lal{e we were enabled to judO'e that the \Vater was 1m pure, hk.e that of lakes 'we ' ubsequefltly found; b~lt the m?d prevented us from approa~h: ing it. \Ve encamped near the eastern pomt of the l.ake, where th~~e Hfe peared between the hills a broad and low connectmg hollow w1t country beyond. From a rocl{y hill in the rear, I could see, marked out by a lin,e of yellow dried grass, the bed f a stream, which probably con· nected the lake with other waters in the spring. The observed latitude of this encampment is 4 2° 42' 3_7"· . h a Decembe1· 19.-After two hours' ride in an easterly ducctwn, throug k low country, the high ridge with pine forest still to our right, and~ roct!r and bald but lower one on the left, we reached a considerable fret dw:een stream, which issues from the piney mountains. So far as we ~viding able to judge, between this strean1 and the lake we h.ad crosse.d ht1 be in· grounds; and there did not appear to be any connexwn, as mlg ferred from the impure condition of the lake water. rhung The rapid stream of pure water, roaring along between ba~ks ~vend we with aspens and willows, was a refreshing and unexpected sight' a.nto a followed down the course of the stream, which brought us soon it was marsh, or dry lake, formed by the expanding waters of the strea~h d been covered with high reeds and rushes, and large pa~ches of groun b aen pre· turned up by the squaws in digging for roots, as 1f a. fanner had [! er which paring the land for grain. I could not ~ncceed in fiudwg the plant 0 209 [ 174 J they had been digging. There ~·ere ~r~quent trails, an~ fresh tracks of Indians; and, from the abundant s1gns VISible, the black-tarled hare appears to be numerous here. It was evident th ~1t, in other seasons, this place was a sheet of water. Crossing this marsh towards the eastern hills, and passing over a bordering plain of heavy sands, covered with artemisia, w~ en camped before sundown on the creek, which here was very smaJJ, having lost its water in the marshy grounds. \V c found here tolerably good grass. The wind to-night wa high, and we had no longer our huge pine fires, but were driven to our old resource of small dried willows and artemisia. About twelve miles ahead, the valley appears to be closed in by a high~ dark-looking ridge. December 20.-Travelling for a few hours down the stream this morning, we turned a point of the hill on our left, and came suddenly in sight of another and much larger lake, which, along its eastern shore, was closely bordered by the high black ridge which walled it in by a precipitous face on this side. Throughout this region the face of the country is characterized by these precipices ofblaek volcanic rock, generally enclosing the valleys of stream~, and frequently terminating the hills. Often in the course ot our journey we would be tempted to continue our road up the gentle ascent of a s~oping ~Jill, which, at the summit, would terminate abruptly in a black prcciptce: Spread out over a length of 20 miles, the lalte, when we first came In VICw, presented a handsome sheet of water; and 1 gave to it the name of Lake Abert, in honor of the chief of the corps to whirh I belonged. The fresh-water stream we had follo,ved emptied into the Jake by a little faiJ; and I ~as doubtful for a moment whether to go on, or encamp al this place. The mu·r. ground in the neighborhood of the lake did not allow us to examine the water conveniently, and, being no'" on the borders of a desert country, we ~·ere moving cautiously. It was, however, st ill early in the day, and 1 contmu.cd on, trusting either that the water would be drinkable, or that we sho~tld fin~l some little spring from the hill side. We were following an lndtan tratl which led along the tcep rocky precipice; a black ridge along the western shore holding out no prospect whatever. The white clUores': cences \~hich lined the shore like a bank of snow, and the disagreeable ordor winch tilled the air as soon as we came near, informed us too plainly ~hat the water belonged to one of those fetid salt I· kes which are common In this region. We continued u~til late in the evenincr to work alonO' the rocky shore, but, as often afterwards, the dry inhospirable rock deceived us; an.d, halting on the lake, we kindled up tires to guide those who were ~t~a~gl~ng along behind. We tried the water, but it wns impossible to nnk rt, anc.l most of the people to-night lay down without eating; but some of us, who had always a great reluctance to close the clay without supper, d~g holes along the shore, and obtained water, which, being filtered, ~vas suffictently palatable to be used, but still retained much of its nauseat:~ lg bst~. There was very little grass for the animals, the shore be ina\~~~~ WJt~ a lu~uriant ~rowth of chenopodiaceous shrubs, which burned Tl a qutck bnght flame, and made our firewood. wh le next morning we had scarcely tr a veiled two hours along the shore feef 11 te 1 eached a place where the mountains made a bay, leaving at their cov . a ~w .bottom around the lake. Ilere we fonnd numerous hillocks pur ere Wtth t·u•hcs, in the midst of which were deep holes, or springs ol salte w;ter; and the bottom was covered with grass, which, althoun·h o'f a an unwholesome quality, and mixed with saline etllorescenc~s Wa.( 14 ' .. |
