| Description |
April-June 1850 April 13th Saturday. The Capt with Mr Carrington & Lieut Gunnison commanding another party, to day commenced the sur- vey" They complain of the difficulty of traversing the lake, it is here a sea of mud & the boats have to be dragged from one point to another. I remained upon the spot where we pitched the camp & from an elevated rocky point made a sketch of the north shore of the lake.`" April 14. Sunday. Capt Stansbury taking into consideration, that the men had laboured hard since the commencement of the campaign, ordered that this day should be one of rest. In the Eveng I made a sketch of Rocky Gate which is our third encampmentT3 April 15th Monday Started abt 7 a.m. upon a sketching expe- dition; after crossing the bed of the lake at this time dry smooth & level, I ascended the Promontory range of mountains4 with the expectation of gaining a peak from which I could view the distant horizon at all points of the compass; but in this I did not succeed, for when I had clambered to the summit of one Peak still another towered some 800 feet above me, tired of descending ravines again to clamber up a precipice, I abandoned my original design & con- tented myself with two thirds of the horizon; a view that was abundantly comprehensive as it embraced a considerable portion l1 Gunnison and his men were assigned to survey the eastern side of Bear River Bay while Stansbury and Peninsula. S tansbury, their crew along the eastern shore of Promontory Carrington led Report, p. 166. tion, l2 This sketch appears opposite page 165 in the Stansbury Report "Landi ng to Encamp. Shores of Great Salt Lake. Bear River Bay." and carries the cap- l3 There is a sketch, opposite page 166 in the Stansbury Report titled "Valley Between Promontory Range and Rocky Butte-Camp No. 2 G.S. Lake." This must be a view completed while Hudson was at Camp No. 3, and it may well be the picture of "Rocky Gate" he mentions. l4 The Promontory Range is the northern extension of an island chain which trends south by southwest to include Fremont and Antelope islands. The Promontory Mountains separate Bear River Bay from the north arm of Great Salt Lake on the west. They vary from four to eight miles in width, are about thirty miles in length, and rise 1,800 feet above the level of the lake. With sufficient moisture to permit grazing, the mountains also contained a million dollars or so worth of zinc and lead ores, a resource which is presently untapped. Gwynn, Great Salt Lake, pp. 57, 60. 131 |
