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Show 322 PERSONAL ADVENTURES and the tnountain ridges are composed of black, basaltic rocks. Numerous warm springs, impregnated with salt, sulphur, and magnesia, are every where to be met with in the latter. The Truckee, or Salmon-trout river, 'vhich falls into this lake, and offers a good pass through the mountains at this place, is said to be one hundred miles in length; taking its rise in the mountains, and flowing through a finely timbered country, which changes into the barren and rocky region above described, as it approaches the lake. It is seldom more than fifty feet wide, and about two feet deep; the current is rapid, and the water clear; · grass in abundance can be obtained along its banks, at the seaRon when the mountain passes are practicable. The ascent of the Californian mountains begins at the Pyramid Lake : reddish and brown sandstone are first met with, then conglomerates, granites, and basalts. The distance to the summit is sixty-five miles, and the higher ridges are covered with a thick growth of timber, principally coniferre. Colonel Fre .. IN CALIFORNIA. 323 Jnont estimates the pass to be about 7,200 feet above the level of the sea. The descent, on the west, is down the Bear Creek, a small tributary of the Feather River; and the Valley of the Sacramento is reached without difficulty, forty miles north of New Helvetia. The pass is the one generally tra .. veiled by emigrants, and should never be attempted after the middle of October. The sufferings endured by emigrants to California, in 1846, ought to prove a salutary caution to those desirous of taking this route late in the season. The time requisite to cross the Great Basin and go through the Emigrant Pass, with waggons, is forty-five days, of which thirty-five · are required to reach the foot of the mountains, or Pyramid J_jake. The Californian range of mountains extends from the 42nd to the 35th degree of North latitude, running nearly parallel to the coast, at the distance of 130 to 150 miles from it, 'vhere they join the coast range, and, under the name of the Cordilleras of California, extend to Cape San Lucas, the extreme point of |