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Show 78 FROM FORT BRIDGER TO GREAT SALT LAKE CITY. lounged about, leaning lazily upon their rifles, looking listlessly on, as if it were a matter in which they were in no manner inte-rested. They had quite a large number of horses and mules, and their encampment betokened comparative comfort and wealth. The bottom of Bear River is here four or five miles in breadth, and is partially overflowed in the spring: the snow lies upon it to the depth of four feet in the winter, which prevents the Indians from occupying it during that season of the year, for which it would otherwise be well adapted. In leaving Fort Bridger, we passed over horizontal lias beds. About six miles to the north of the road, the country appeared to be much broken up, and not solely by the action of water. The strata seemed dislocated and inclined, presenting much the same appearance as those near Laramie. Near this point, Fremont states that he found coal, which probably has been thrown up here. At Ogden's Hole, on the eastern slope of the Wahsatch Mountains, we found the ranges of hills to be composed of the carboniferous strata, thrown up at a very considerable angle; and at Bear River, near our encampment of to- day, they were almost perpendicular, the later strata being deposited by their side in an almost horizontal position, with a very slight dip to the southeast. At this latter point, the older sandstones were cropping out at an angle of 85°; and on the opposite side of the river, the same strata were seen with a dip in the contrary direction, the valley being evidently an anticlinal axis. Wednesday, August 22.- Crossing the broad valley of Bear River diagonally, we forded that stream, and struck over a point of bluff into a valley, the course of which being too much to the south • for our purpose, we passed over to another, and followed it to its head, where it opens upon a long ridge, running to the south- west. Instead of following the ridge, ( which I afterward found should have been done,) we crossed over two more ridges into a third valley, in which was a small rapid stream running into Bear River. Fearful of getting too far south, I ascended the western bluff of this stream, in hopes of finding a valley or ridge the course of which would give us more westing; but the country, in that direction, was so much broken that we were forced still farther to the south, and struck upon the heads of Pumbar's Creek, a tributary of the Weber River, which latter discharges its waters into the Great Salt Lake. This valley, our guide insisted, would lead us in the right direction, and it was concluded to follow it down, |