| OCR Text |
Show 96 NATIONAL· WAGON ROAD GUIDE. Very fair camping here ; look ahead, no more water fit to drink for nearly sixteen miles. ICE MARSH • • . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • 6 This an alkali marsh, to the right of the road, and on some parts of it tolerable good grass. It is assetted that ice can be found on this marsh at any season of summer, by digging two feet beneath the surface; 've tried it in a number of places, and in two of them found a substance resembling ice in appearance ; we obtained a good specimen, and have it yet, so conclude it's notice, but know it to be a crude mixture of salt and soda. SIXTH FORD ...................................... 10 A little above this ford is good grass, and as there are some willows here, very good camping. In a short distance you will cross a small creek, then rise a bluff. SEVENTH FORI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... · ..... 4~ But little grass here. EIGHTH FORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..............••..... ~ MUSK-RA'r CI~EEI(, ............................... 3~ Here is a good spring to the right of the road; very fair camping. . ROAD LEAVES THE RIVER ...................... 2~ Very fair camping here; the road now passes over a, succession of rough hills, ridges, and hollows, hard on wagons. Here you pass the Soap Lakes the water having the taste and appearance of soap sud~. SWAMP CREEK ................................... 5 Good gras.s here; but the ground in many places too soft and m try to be saf~ for animals. ASMN 0A LL CREEl( • • • • • • • • • • • • .. • . . . . . . . . • • . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 s,t 74. T HER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,{ S TRA WBERR y CREEK ............ · · · · · · · · · 74 . . • . • . . . . . • • • • • • • • • • . . . . . . 2 !ai: camping; wood can be obtained at the poplar grove In Sight. POPLAR, OR ASPEN SPRINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 1 NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. 97 BRANCH OF SWEET 'VATER ................... 2~ Good camping; grass plenty. WILLOW CREEK ... ~ ...•... ... ....•• ~ ............. 2 Fair camping. Your next drive of about five miles brings you to the Sweet Water for the last time. If the cmiO'ration has been heavy ahead of you, or grass generan; scarce, you can turn to the left and strike the river below the usual place, and find abundance of grass and willows. SWEET WATER RIVER. . . . . . . . .• ~ . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 5~ Fa.ir camping. You now leave the waters that flow towards the Atlantic, and approach the dividing ridge between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, which is here a depression in the Rocky Mountains, called tho SOUTH PASS ..... ~ .. .. ................... · .. · · · · · . l 0 You are now nine hundred and four miles from St. J oseph, and seven miles more than half way to the Califor· nia line, at Honey Lake Valley. You are but eight hundred and six miles from Council Bluffs,' or forty-two miles less than half way, and in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, whose rough and sterile peaks rise in snow capped grandeur high among the clouds, that seem ever to hang over them. The Pass, instead of being a nar· ~ow defile of only a few yards or rods in width, as many have supposed, is a broad undulating plain, between two mountains more than thirty miles apart, and its ascent from the Sweet Water so gradual as hardly to be perceived, and over the finest road in the world. The rugged, conical peaks of the vVind River Range li~ off ~o the north, while to the south, hills rise upon htlls, t1ll they assume the appearance and elevation of mountains. The altitude of the Pass is said to be abont 7,400 feet above the level of the sen.. We learn that engineer Lander, of McGraw's Com-mission for the location of the middle section of the ' |
