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Show 58 ADDITIONAL REMARKS. ters of the Humboldt River quite palatable. About half way from the head of this river to the Sink, the water has a brackish flavor, which gro\\Ts worse till you arrive at the Sink, where it is decidedly salt. By adding a few drops of the lemon acid, the unpleasant taste is mostly overcome. N ~ar Scott's BI uffs, the Prickly Pear and Wild Sage make their appearance, and from here the emigrant will do well to make hay at every opportunity which offers. This will not perhaps be absolutely nece1sary, if you are early on the road, (except in those places described in the foregoing pages,) but if a large portion of the emigration is in advance of you, it will be a great !aving to keep supplied with hay as much of the time as possible, as it will frequently save the trouble ef driving from three to six miles off the road, (and sometimes more,) to find feed, which will be consumed and trodden down by those who have already pa8sed. ADDITIONAL REMARKS. 59 The alkali pools and lakes, are, perhaps, the most dangerous enemy the emigrant can encounter. rrhe water in these is a deadly poison to man and beas~, and y~t no indication of its quality can be discerned by the eye, as it is, in most ca~es, of a crystal · clearness. In the immediate neighborhood of these pools, may frequently be seen, a fine, dry scum, or powder, on the ground, lying between tho bunches of grass, and so mew hat resembling hoar-frost. The road via Salt Lake, is, for the most part, over a much more level country, than that via Bear River cut-off, but the sweep which it takes around the Lake, makes the distance considerably more. It has generally been estimated to be 150 miles further by the Salt Lake road; but a gentleman who went by that route in the spring of 1851, assures me there cannot be over 75 miles difference, and he thinks the road enough b ettcr to tnake up the difference |