Such is the somewhat fanciful view which Captain Bonneville gives to this great body ofwater. He has evidently taken part of his ideas concerning it from the representations ofothers, who have somewhat exaggerated its features. It is reported to be about onehundred and fifty miles long, and fifty miles broad. The ranges of mountain peaks whichCaptain Bonneville speaks of, as rising from its bosom, are probably the summits ofmountains beyond it, which may be visible at a vast distance, when viewed from aneminence, in the transparent atmosphere of these lofty regions. Several large islandscertainly exist in the lake; one of which is said to be mountainous, but not by anymeans 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 havesent four men in a skin canoe, to explore the lake, who professed to have navigated allround it; but to have suffered excessively from thirst, the water of the lake beingextremely salt, and there being no fresh streams running into it.
Captain Bonneville doubts this report, or that the men accomplished thecircumnavigation, because, he says, the lake receives several large streams from themountains which bound it to the east. In the spring, when the streams are swollen byrain and by the melting of the snows, the lake rises several feet above its ordinary levelduring the summer, it gradually subsides again, leaving a sparkling zone of the finestsalt upon its shores.
The elevation of the vast plateau on which this lake is situated, is estimated by CaptainBonneville at one and three-fourths of a mile above the level of the ocean. Theadmirable purity and transparency of the atmosphere in this region, allowing objects tobe seen, and the report of firearms to be heard, at an astonishing distance; and itsextreme dryness, causing the wheels of wagons to fall in pieces, as instanced in formerpassages 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 is cited as a singularphenomenon by Captain Bonneville, though the salt lake of Mexico is not much inferiorin elevation.
To have this lake properly explored, and all its secrets revealed, was the grand schemeof the captain for the present year; and while it was one in which his imaginationevidently took a leading part, he believed it would be attended with great profit, fromthe numerous beaver streams with which the lake must be fringed.
This momentous undertaking he confided to his lieutenant, Mr. Walker, in whoseexperience and ability he had great confidence. He instructed him to keep along theshores of the lake, and trap in all the streams on his route; also to keep a journal, andminutely to record the events of his journey, and everything curious or interesting,making maps or charts of his route, and of the surrounding country.
No pains nor expense were spared in fitting out the party, of forty men, which he was tocommand. They had complete supplies for a year, and were to meet Captain Bonnevillein the ensuing summer, in the valley of Bear River, the largest tributary of the Salt Lake,which was to be his point of general rendezvous.
The next care of Captain Bonneville was to arrange for the safe transportation of thepeltries which he had collected to the Atlantic States. Mr. Robert Campbell, the partnerof Sublette, was at this time in the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company,having brought up their supplies. He was about to set off on his return, with the peltriescollected during the year, and intended to proceed through the Crow country, to thehead of navigation on the Bighorn River, and to descend in boats down that river, theMissouri, and the Yellowstone, to St. Louis.
Captain Bonneville determined to forward his peltries by the same route, under theespecial care of Mr. Cerre. By way of escort, he would accompany Cerre to the point ofembarkation, and then make an autumnal hunt in the Crow country. [Return to Contents].
