Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 2, Pt. 2

FROM GREAT SALT LAKE TO GREEN RIVER.
access at all times, and become entirely inaccessible during the prevalence of deep snows, producing at once great scarcity of fuel in that city. The passage of the uninhabited mountain
to the east, at such times, by the ordinary road leading over it, which, of course, is not kept
open, is entirely impracticable; and the mail which passes monthly to and from Independence,
Mo., is carried on pack-mules, which subsist themselves almost entirely on the grass along
the route, by way of the Weber river canon-the object in part of our present explorations,
which will, however, be continued eastward to the valley of Green river.*
April 5.-On the afternoon of the fifth of April we reached the mouth of this canon at
the immediate base of the Wahsatch mountains, where it opens into the valley of Great Salt
lake, thirty miles north of the city, and about seventeen from thie mouth of the river, which
we immediately crossed to its right bank. This river at this season of the year (not yet
swollen by the melting snows of the mountains) is thirty yards wide, by from one to three feet
in depth, flowing with a rapid, powerful current over a bed of water-worn stones and fallen rocks
of all sizes, from pebbles to immense blocks of the adjacent mountain. Our altitude at this point
was 73 feet above the city of Great Salt Lake, and 4,424 feet above the sea. Entering the pass,
we at once left the usual low-water trail, which frequently crosses the river, and followed a precipitous and rocky path leading over the retreating craggy sides of the canion, so steep that a
single mis-step would have precipitated both mule and rider into the foaming torrent, hundreds
of feet below us. At some points the precipitous sides of this passage become almost vertical.
The mountains rise, we judged, from 1,500 to 2,500 feet above the river, and are separated at
the base by a passage averaging 175 yards in width, in which the river winds from side to
side, frequently impinging against the the bases of the mountains. At one point only, near the
upper end of the gorge, which is four miles in length, the river is narrowed to one half its
usual width, having cut a passage 20 or 30 feet ill depth through the solid rock, which on the
north side overhangs the stream, which, by a low projecting mass, is deflected from its course
for a few yards at nearly a right angle, but again almost immediately resumes its direction;
the canon, as it is called-and at some points it well deserves the name-being remarkably
direct in its general course. Above this gorge the mountain opens rapidly to the right and left,
* One of the most striking features to the traveller in our extensive and inhospitable interior country, after reaching the Rocky
mountains from the east, in whatever direction he muay travel in it, is the vast field of mountains which everywhere meets the
eye. These mountains are sometimes formidable and united, their summits perpetually enveloped in snow, but more generally
broken and disconnected, or partially united by projecting spurs or low connecting ridges, retaining snow but a portion of the
year. They confor-m, with considerable exceptions, but not sufficient to impair its generality, in their greatest length to a general
northern and southern direction, but frequently varying many degrees from the meridian. The great Rocky mountain range, by
the line of our last and present years' explorations, consists, towards the east, of the Sierra Blanca range, in which are the passes
of the Sangre de Cristo, and of Roubideau andWilliams, united at the head of the San Luis valley with the Sierra San Juan; or
at this point the range may be said to divide the two branches, under different names, extending far to the southward, enclosing
the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte; the western or San Juan range eventually becoming the Sierra Madre of Mexico.
Northward firom the Sierra Blanca, the range is more or less broken by the valley of the Arkansas river, but preserves its general
course, surmounted by Pike's and Janes' peaks, to the Cheyenne and Bridger's passes, and thence to the South Pass, where,
nothwithstanding the great elevation of the country, its mountainous appearance is in a great measure lost, although the country
is still very hilly and rolling, and in the distance high mountain peaks are ever visible. North of the South Pass, for some distance,
the Rocky mountains again become lofty and again branch, sending out to the south a formidable range, known in various portions
under different names, but generally as the Bear river and W'ahsatch range, broken by the passage of Bear, Weber, Timpanogos,
and Sevier river in their western course, but enclosing to the west the valley of Green river. Thus these three ranges, with
their spurs and connecting ridges, form, on the line of our explorations the main features of the Rocky mountains. But the
country to the west is scarcely less mountainous; and as we become familiar with it in pursuing our explorations in various direc
tions, it presents to our minds one vast field of moutiztains, interspersed with arid valleys from the Rocky mountains to the Sierra
Nevada, and from the British possessions far southward into Mexico. The most extensive valley susceptible of cultivation in
this whole extent of territory is that occupied by the Mormons, which is supplied with water for irrigation by the extensive fields of
perpetual snow which are found on the mountain summits in their vicinity. And I may observe, generally, that fields of perpetual
snow, affording an unfailing supply of water for irrigation, are an indispensable prerequisite for their cultivation, and hence for
their occupation, whatever may be the character of the sol of the valleys, in evaery portion of this territory in which I have
travelled-a district extending from the northern boundary of Mexico to the waters of the Columbia river, and. by different
routes, from New Mexico and the Arkansas river to the Sierra Nevada.
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