Chapter 21 - Page 2

the

rotundity of the lake's surface. At some future day, in all

probability, the rich harvest of beaver fur, which may be

reasonably anticipated in such a spot, will tempt adventurers to

reduce all this doubtful region to the palpable certainty of a

beaten track. At present, however, destitute of the means of

making boats, the trapper stands upon the shore, and gazes upon a

promised land which his feet are never to tread.

Such is the somewhat fanciful view which Captain Bonneville gives

to this great body of water. He has evidently taken part of his

ideas concerning it from the representations of others, who have

somewhat exaggerated its features. It is reported to be about one

hundred and fifty miles long, and fifty miles broad. The ranges

of mountain peaks which Captain Bonneville speaks of, as rising

from its bosom, are probably the summits of mountains beyond it,

which may be visible at a vast distance, when viewed from an

eminence, in the transparent atmosphere of these lofty regions.

Several large islands certainly exist in the lake; one of which

is said to be mountainous, but not by any means to the extent

required to furnish the series of peaks above mentioned.

Captain Sublette, in one of his early expeditions across the

mountains, is said to have sent four men in a skin canoe, to

explore the lake, who professed to have navigated all round it;

but to have suffered excessively from thirst, the water of the

lake being extremely salt, and there being no fresh streams

running into it.

Captain Bonneville doubts this report, or that the men

accomplished the circumnavigation, because, he says, the lake

receives several large streams from the mountains which bound it

to the east. In the spring, when the streams are swollen by rain

and by the melting of the snows, the lake rises several feet

above its ordinary level during the summer, it gradually subsides

again, leaving a sparkling zone of the finest salt upon its

shores.

The elevation of the vast plateau on which this lake is situated,

is estimated by Captain Bonneville at one and three-fourths of a

mile above the level of the ocean. The admirable purity and

transparency of the atmosphere in this region, allowing objects

to be seen, and the report of firearms to be heard, at an

astonishing distance; and its extreme dryness, causing the wheels

of wagons to fall in pieces, as instanced in former passages of

this work, are proofs of the great altitude of the Rocky Mountain

plains. That a body of salt water should exist at such a height