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Exploring Great Salt Lake of the lake, with the chain of mountains on the main land.`" My toil in reaching this elevated position was however amply repaid by one of the finest views which I have ever attempted to repre- sent. Having taken this view & another looking N. E., I descended & wended my way to the camp? I should mention that the summits of some of these mountains, generally rugged & bare, are clothed with fine cedar, one of these trees, its branches shooting from the trunk at a few inches from the ground, & rising pyramid- ically, I stepped round & in this way, estimated its circumference at 57 yards." Tuesdy April 16 The early part of the morning I spent in writing for Lieut. Gunnison, this finished, I rambled along the little valley formed by Rocky Gate on the E & Promontory range on the W. after walking about 3 miles upon an Indian trail, upon which signs of travel were recent," I came to a ridge where a steep descent led to the plains on a level with the lake; from the point upon which I stood I beheld a noble amthitheatre on either hand bold rocks sloping to the verdant plains with the lake lying like a mirror on its bosom the background, composed of precipitous mountains "The Palaces of nature, whose vast walls Have pinnacled in clouds their is This sketch, entitled "Panoramic View from Rock Gate Camp.-Looking N.E. across Bear River Bay. -Great Salt Lake." is found in the Stansbury, Xepovt, p. 100. 16 This other view "1ookingN.E." has apparently disappeared. l7 The "fine cedar" mentioned by Hudson is juniper which is also found on the Hogup and Stansbury mountains. These types are found on steep, rocky hillsides in uniform stands. Although the juniper is not readily usable as food for wildlife, a browse type of mountain mahogany, serviceberry, and bitterbrush, also found on the Promontory Range, is available for food. Gwynn, Great SaIt Lake, p. 337. I8 The Indians who inhabited the regions around the northern arc of Great Salt Lake were members of the Northern Shoshoni group. They came to be known as the North- western Shoshoni and at the time of white occupation numbered about 1,800 people. They also claimed as their homeland Cache, Weber, Ogden, and Malad valleys. The Northwestern Shoshoni were horse-owning people who hunted buffalo in Wyoming, and deer, elk, and antelope in the nearby mountains and plains; who harvested seeds and berries, camas roots, and piKon nuts in their respective neighborhoods; and who fished Bear River and Bear Lake. When they signed their first agreement, the Treaty of Box Elder, with the government in 1863, they were divided into ten bands under such prominent chieftains as Pocatello and Sagwitz. Julian H. Steward, Basin-Plateau Aborigi- nal Sociopolitical Groups, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 120 (Washington, D.C., 1938), p. 148; Brigham D. Madsen, The Northern Sho- shoni (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 198O), ch. 2. 132 |
