The shortest route to California illustrated by a history of explorations of the Great Basin of Utah with its topographical and geological character and some account of the Indian tribes

The shortest route to California illustrated by a history ofexplorations of the Great Basin of Utah with its topographical and geological character and some account of the Indian tribes - Page 8

THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. THE country known since the date of the explora-tions of Fremont in 1843 and ' 44, by his appellation of the Great Basin, has, since the days of Fathers Silvestre Yelez Escalante and Francisco Atanacio Dominguez, in 1776, been of great interest. This interest has grown out of its inaccessibility on ac-count of extended deserts; its occupancy by Indians of an exceedingly low type, who subsist chiefly on roots, grass- seed, rats, lizards, grasshoppers, etc.; and the laudable curiosity which prevails in the minds of men to know the physical characteristics of a country which until a very recent period has been a terra in-cognita. The Great Basin has a triangular shape, nearly that of a right- angle triangle, the mountains to the north of the Humboldt River and Great Salt Lake constituting the northern limit or border, and form-ing one leg of the triangle; the Sierra Nevada, or western limit, the other equal leg; and the Wasatch Kange, to the east of Great Salt Lake, and the short mountain ranges and plateau country to the north of the Santa Fe and Los Angeles Caravan or Span-ish trail route, the hypothenuse. These limits are embraced approximately within the lllth and 120th ( 5)