Still it was said the deer, the elk, and
the bighorn were to be found there, so that, with a little diligence and
economy, there was no danger of lacking food. As a precaution, however,
the party halted on Bear River and hunted for a few days, until they had
laid in a supply of dried buffalo meat and venison; they then passed by
the head waters of the Cassie River, and soon found themselves launched
on an immense sandy desert. Southwardly, on their left, they beheld the
Great Salt Lake, spread out like a sea, but they found no stream running
into it. A desert extended around them, and stretched to the southwest,
as far as the eye could reach, rivalling the deserts of Asia and Africa
in sterility. There was neither tree, nor herbage, nor spring, nor pool,
nor running stream, nothing but parched wastes of sand, where horse and
rider were in danger of perishing.
Their sufferings, at length, became so great that they abandoned
their intended course, and made towards a range of snowy mountains,
brightening in the north, where they hoped to find water. After a time,
they came upon a small stream leading directly towards these mountains.
Having quenched their burning thirst, and refreshed themselves and their
weary horses for a time, they kept along this stream, which gradually
increased in size, being fed by numerous brooks. After approaching the
mountains, it took a sweep toward the southwest, and the travellers
still kept along it, trapping beaver as they went, on the flesh of which
they subsisted for the present, husbanding their dried meat for future
necessities.
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