AMERICA

LE

In the Rocky Mountains

By JOHN C. FREMONT

EAVING camp about II o'clock, on August 25, we traveled a short distance down the river, and halted to noon on the bank, at a point where the road quits the valley of Bear River, and, crossing a ridge which divides the Great Basin from the Pacific waters, reaches Fort Hall, by way of the Portneuf River, in a distance of probably fifty miles, or two and a half days' journey for wagons. An examination of the great lake which is the outlet of the river, and the principal feature of geographical interest in the basin, was one of the main objects contemplated in the general plan of our survey, and I accordingly determined at this place to leave the road, and, after having completed a reconnaissance of the lake, regain it subsequently at Fort Hall. But our little stock of provisions had again become extremely low; we had only dried meat sufficient for one meal, and our supply of flour and other comforts was entirely exhausted. I therefore immediately dispatched one of the party, Henry Lee, with a note to Carson, at Fort Hall, directing him to load a pack-horse with whatever could be obtained there in the way of provisions, and endeavor to overtake me on the river. In the meantime we had picked up along the road two tolerably well-grown calves, which would have become food for wolves, and which had probably been left by some of the earlier emigrants, none of those

we had met having made any claim to them; and on these I mainly relied for support during our circuit to the lake.

In sweeping around the point of the mountain which runs down into the bend, the river here passes between perpendicular walls of basalt, which always fix the attention, from the regular form in which it occurs, and its perfect distinctness from the surrounding rocks among which it has been placed. The mountain, which is rugged and steep, and, by our measurement, 1400 feet above the river directly opposite the place of our halt, is called the Sheep Rockprobably because a flock of the common mountain sheep (ovis montana) had been seen on the craggy point.

As we were about resuming our march in the afternoon I was attracted by the singular appearance of an isolated hill with a concave summit, in the plain, about two miles from the river, and turned off toward it, while the camp proceeded on its way to the southward in search of the lake. I found the thin and stony soil of the plain entirely underlaid by the basalt which forms the river walls; and when I reached the neighborhood of the hill the surface of the plain was rent into frequent fissures and chasms of the same scoriated volcanic rock, from forty to sixty feet deep, but which there was not sufficient light to penetrate entirely, and which I had not time to descend. Arrived at the summit of the hill I found that it terminated in a very perfect crater, of an oval, or nearly circular form, three hundred and sixty paces in circumference, and sixty feet at the greatest depth. walls, which were perfectly vertical, and disposed like masonry in a very regular manner, were composed of a browncolored scoriaceous lava, evidently the production of a modern volcano, and having all the appearance of the lighter scoriaceous lavas of Mount Etna, Vesuvius, and other volcanoes. The faces of the walls were reddened and glazed by the fire in which they had been melted, and which had left them contorted and twisted by its violent action.

The

Our route during the afternoon was a little rough, being (in the direction we had taken) over a volcanic plain, where

our progress was sometimes obstructed by fissures, and black beds composed of fragments of the rock. On both sides the mountains appeared very broken, but tolerably well timbered.

August 26.-Crossing a point of ridge which makes into the river, we fell upon it again before sunset, and encamped on the right bank opposite to the encampment of three lodges of Snake Indians. They visited us during the evening and we obtained from them a small quantity of roots of different kinds in exchange for goods. Among them was a sweet root of very pleasant flavor having somewhat the taste of preserved quince. My endeavors to become acquainted with the plants which furnish to the Indians a portion of their support were only gradually successful, and after long and persevering attention; and even after obtaining I did not succeed in preserving them until they could be satisfactorily determined. In this portion of the journey I found this particular root cut up into such small pieces that it was only to be identified by its taste, when the bulb was met with in perfect form among the Indians lower down on the Columbia, among whom it is the highly celebrated kamas. It was long afterward, on our return through Upper California, that I found the plant itself in bloom, which I supposed to furnish the kamas root (camassia esculenta). The root diet had a rather mournful effect at the commencement, and one of the calves was killed this evening for food. The animals fared well on rushes.

August 27.-The morning was cloudy, with appearance of rain, and the thermometer at sunrise at 29°. Making an unusually early start we crossed the river at a good ford; and following for about three hours a trail which led along the bottom we entered a labyrinth of hills below the main ridge, and halted to noon in the ravine of a pretty little stream timbered with cotton-wood of a large size, ash-leaved maple, with cherry and other shrubby trees. The hazy weather which had prevented any very extended views since entering the Green River Valley, began now to disappear. There was a slight rain in the earlier part of the day and at