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Show 20 RECONNAISSANCE IN THE UTE COUNTRY. fork the mountains rise very suddenly on either hand, leaving a comparatively wide, swampy bottom. This bottom will average 500 feet iu width for about three miles to the triangular valley lying between the feet of Eed Mountain, Mount Flatface, and the mountain on the right bank of the creek, and the tributary which here falls into it. This valley measures about 2,000 feet on each side of the triangle, with a nearly level water- worn pebble and small bowlder bottom, on which there is an open growth of willows in patvhes, the main stream lunning close to the foot of Bed Mountain under a high precipice of beautifully colored and stratified red sandstone. The sheer face of the precipice was estimated to be about 800 feet, and it had a slope of debris about 300 feet height to the stream. The west side of the valley was bounded by the slope at the foot of the enormous precipice to which the name of Flat-face was given. The slope appeared to be at an angle of about 40°, with the horizon rising to a height of about 800 feet, where it meets the precipice, which, at a moderate estimate, is at least 1,500 feet in height. A tributary 25 feet wide by about 15 inches deep flows from the northwest apex of the triangle along the foot of the slope to Flatface. The mountain on the third side of the valley is steep and rocky, but not precipitous. The slope at the foot of Eed Mountain is nearly bare, while the slope of Flatface is covered by a thick growth of gigantic pines. The river plows through a V- shaped canon, between Flatface and lied Mountain, and our trail was through thfe timber about 000 yards on the slope of Flatface. Above Ave found a very steep- sided V- shaped valley, the visible summits of the mountains on the east or right bank being about 2,000 feet above the river, bare and rocky, but sloped to the stream; on the left of west bank the slope was about two in one- so steep that with difficulty our mules kept their footing; this slope was covered with bold precipices, commencing at Flatface, and gradually becoming less and less high as the valley rose, averaging GOO or 700 feet, their visible summits being about 1,400 or 1,500 feet above the river. At the upper end of this valley the river ran under an almost continual bridge of snow, and snow was seen in patches at the level or our trail on the opposite side. At a distance of about two miles above the triangular valley described, the whole scene was duplicated on a somewhat smaller scale and bleaker aspect, minus the timber and the precipices of Ked Mountain. The mountain which here blocked the valley, and which we named Bareface, had the same general appearance as Flatface, plus some extra snow, and the stream was here forked, but owing to the steepness of the trail, and the obstructions caused by the melting snow, we turned back after taking the bearings of the streams. In this valley the river has formed for itself a very regular bed or bowlders, built into the shape of a V, about 50 feet deep, and in perfectly straight reaches. The following morning camp was struck, and the party returned to Camp 26, main line, from which Cement Creek was ascended. Cement Greek.- The entrance to the valley of Cement Creek from Hamilton Park was about 300 yards north of Camp 26, and is very narrow; the hills on the left bankbeing low; the trail leads over their face at a distance of from 300 to 400 feet from the river, which is here about fifty feet wide and two deep, very swift; the water of a peculiar light- brown or dirty-white tint, owing to its holding in solution a mineral salt, wThichhas the property of firmly cementing together all the pebbles in its bed, which characteristic makes it a dangerous stream to ford when it passes over bed- rock, as it fills all the interstices, making the bottom of the stream perfectly smooth, thus affording no footing to enable animals to withstand |