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Show 26 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. which we have of explorations within the Great Basin, is to be found in the report by Captain Howard Stans-bury, Topographical Engineers, of his " Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, in 1849," published by order of Congress. This report, however erroneous it may have been in its discussions of the Mormon question at that early date, and however its conclusions may have been falsified by the history of this people since the date of the report, we cannot but regard, in a geo-graphical and physical point of view, as of great value. We have had occasion, in many instances in our reconnoissances west of the Kocky Mountains, and in the region of the Great Salt Lake, to test the accuracy of Captain Stansbury's work; and it has been a grati-fication to us to find that his report and map have represented the country so correctly and been of so much service to us. To him and his assistant, the lamented Captain Gunnison, Topographical Engineers, the public is indebted for a thorough triangular survey of the Great Salt Lake ; and to them is the credit due of a complete exploration of the lake around its en-tire limits; a feat which Joseph Walker, by Colonel Bonneville's directions, attempted, as before stated, sixteen years previously, but which, on account of the desert lying on its west, and the consequent want of fresh water, he failed to execute. Stansbury, how-ever, extended his explorations in the Great Basin only as far as Pilot Knob, a prominent landmark, sixty- four miles due west from Great Salt Lake. The next authentic account of explorations in the Great Basin is that by Captain E. G. Beckwith, 3d |