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Show 108 BBTUBJf TO THE WESTERN SHOEB. how or when the removal had1 been, effected it was impossible for, u* to discover, . , , Thursday, June 6.< r* We left, this encampment with reluctance, . a* it- was the most pleasant one we had yet made. in Our peregrinations around ' the lake, and. pitched our tents once more tapon the inhospitable flats of t} ie. main western shore., Asvit was necessary to get a full view of our present position, ifl/ xdh it was impossible to obtain unless from some elevation, I started OA foot, in . company with Mr. Camngton^ for. a peak pQnoie seven miles to. the southward, crossing * broad mud- plain, bordered on the right by a range of hills running off to the north- west. Upon reaching the , eminence, it was found to be parf of a ridge or. rocky projection mputting. down to. the Border of the lake from the north- west. It rose abruptly frpm an immense fiat of sancl aqd mud,* extending some ten miles westward to the base of another similar ridge, at the northern termination of- fthich we had halted in October last, the day previous to crossing the field of salt and reaching Pilot Peak. To the- southward the flat continued tinbroken by the least . elevation for an apparently indefinite distance. The question which now presented itself was in what way this sterile desert was to be surveyed. Apart, from the consideration of time and expense, water w* s only to be procured, by eroding the lake, bringing it to. the shore, and then packing it" on the Jtagks of my crew for the chain party. This was obviously impossible, as they could not carry enough in that way to supply both. the shore party and themselves ^ hile passing to and fro over the plain. In addition to this difficulty, how were the provisions to be carried and cooked? These con- •' siderations induced me to hesitate in risking the lives of my people by attempting to penetrate this desert, where the slightest derangement of the measures by which they were to be supplied with water might . prove fatal. The appearance of the plain indicated . that the lake had not been ov^ r it. for very many years, for it wasrthickly grown up. with grease- wood; and the great proba- . bility,' if not positive certainty was, that, as the watersr were evidently in a state of subsidence, they would never again overflow it. As, therefore, my oiyect was to survey the shore of the lake jn its present stage, I determined to abandoq, in^ this instance, the storm- line, and to run the line of survey to a point west of the water, as it tbeb wo*, and thence . to strike across the flat to Strong's Knob, triangulating, upon the prominent points of the |