| OCR Text |
Show 220 HEADS OF ran TIMPANOGAS,* WRBIR, AND BEAR RIVER. seven wide, and extending north- west and south- east from the Tim-panogas to the Weber. At the south- eastern end of the prairie, the Timpanogas breaks forth from a range of lofty mountains, and skirts the edge of it, passing near the base of some high hills on the south- east; while from near, the same point, the most southerly branch of the Weber issues also and crossing to the western end of the same prairie, discharges its waters into the main stream. This latter, coming through a deep cation from the north- east, bounds the prairie on the north- west,, and winding its sinuous ( wurse through a wilderness of willow and cotton- wood thickets, pursues a north- western direction for about fifteen, miles to the point where it is crossed by the road. The pass made by the Weber through the mountain, although narrow, is said to be practicable by one of the guides, who passed through it in former years with a train of pack- mules. Several little streams of pure, clear water wind through this fertile prairie, cutting small, deep channels for themselves in the rich alluvial soil; their existence being only discernible from, the increased height and luxuriance of the grass updh. their borders, and occasional clumps of willows flourishing along their edges. The prairie, from one end to the other, from the Weber to the Timpano* gap, is one level plain, covered with * heavy growth of rich grasses, and affords a passage from one stream to the other as perfect as could be desired* Bear River is , said by our guides to take its rise in the same mountain with the Weber and the Timpanogas. Should such be the case,- ( and there iB no reason to doubt it,) an easy com* summation can be obtained by means of the valley of th* t stream into this prairie, and thence down the valley of the Timpanogas into that of the Utah Lake. * The grade down the Timpanogas is described to be easy, and the caflon through which it descends to the level of the Salt Lake basin to be sufficiently wide for the construction of a road. Such a route, would obviate many difficulties which must be encountered hi descending either of the only other two practicable caflons through the mountain in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, or in going through that of the Weber River. When once the level of the basin is attained,, the way from Utah Lake, either north or south, appears to he open. In the event of any exploration for a railroad to California or Oregon, upon a route so fair north, a careful examination of the country from the point where the main emigration- road strikes |
