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Show WESTERN SHORE- STRONG' 8 KNOB STATION. 199 different ranges,- so as to obtain their general shape and distances, and sketching in the intervening ground. This course would secure all the ends of practical utility, without the hazard and delay to be incurred by penetrating the desert. The hill from which we made our reconnoissance was about three hundred feet high, and consisted of coarsely granular and earthy limestone, terminating to the northward in a perpendicular cliff of the same formation, in horizontal strata of only a few inches in ^ thickness from top to bottom, the whole of which was in a state of rapid disintegration. Friday, June 7.- As it was not expected that the line could reach Strong's Knob before the following day, and there was no intervening point that could be reached by the larger boat, provisions ready cooked and the blankets of the shore party were transferred to the skiff, whose crew was directed to coast along the shallow water as far south as they could get, and then to land in the bight of the bay and await the coming up of the line. Some drift- wood was cut up and loaded into their boat, to enable them to boil coffee for supper and breakfast. The main camp was taken to Strong's Knob, and pitched at the base of the lofty rocky peak which composes it, and which is about seven hundred feet high. Saturday, June 8.- Morning warm and sultry. A station was erected to- day upon the highest peak of this peninsula. A circular stone enclosure was built up about five feet high, within which the feet of a tripod, made of drift- wood poles, were placed, after the area had been filled in with stones and gravel; the wall was then continued, and the feet of the tripod secured by being built therein. The whole was covered with cotton cloth of different colours, and presented An object that could be easily distinguished in clear weather at a distance of twenty miles. After completing the station, and while taking a series of angles upon the surrounding peaks and stations, a most furious gale, with low muttering thunder, came up suddenly from the south, which made it difficult to stand erect in our exposed position. With the gale came a mist, which shortly enveloped the lake and surrounding mountains, rendering objects a few miles distant so indistinct as at once to put an end to my observations; and the gale at length rose to such a height that the instrument had to be removed to the shelter of a neighbouring cliff to save it from destruction. The skiff, with the camp- equipage of the shore party, came in A |