OCR Text |
Show 36 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. lakes that have been discovered in the Great Basin, and they are all without outlet. Great Salt Lake is seventy miles long and from twenty to thirty broad; Pyramid and Walker's Lakes, the next largest, are both about thirty miles long by ten wide; all the others are smaller. Pyramid Lake, Walker's Lake, and Utah Lake, which are all fresh- water lakes, abound in fine large trout. The principal rivers which, on account of their width and depth, require bridging or ferry in their flush state, during the time of melting snow, are the Bear, Weber, Roseaux pr Malade, Jordan, Timpano-gos, Spanish Fork, and Sevier Rivers, which have their sources in the Wasatch Mountains, on the east side of the Basin, and flow into lakes near the base of these mountains; the Mojave, Owen's, Walker's, Car-son, and Truckee or Salmon Trout, which have their sources in the Sierra Nevada, and flow into lakes at their base and sink ; and the Humboldt River, which flows from east to south of west along the northern portion of the Basin and sinks. The longest of these is the Humboldt, about three hundred miles long, and the next longest Bear River, about two hundred and fifty miles long. The others vary from forty to one hundred and twenty miles in length. In width they vary from about fifty to one hundred and fifty feet, and in depth from two to fifteen feet, depending upon the season and locality. All the other streams are of small extent, and, taking their rise in the many mountain ranges by which the Basin is traversed, generally from north to south, they seldom flow beyond their bases, where in |