First among these, confining ourselves to authentic records, was James Bridger, to whom belongs the honor of discovery. It happened in this wise. During the winter of 1824–5 a party of trappers, who had ascended the Missouri with Henry and Ashley, found
we have no certain account. Two have been noticed in the western parts, a salt lake about the thirty-ninth degree of latitude, the western limits of which are unknown, and the lake of Timpanogos, about the forty-first degree, of great but unascertained extent.'In a report submitted to congress May 15, 1826, by Mr Baylies it is stated that 'many geographies have placed the Lake Timpanogos in latitude 40, but they have obviously confounded it with the Lake Theguayo, which extends from 39° 40' to 41°, and from which it appears separated by a neck or peninsula; the two lakes approaching in one direction as near as 20 miles.' 19th Cong., 1st Sess., House Rept. No. 213. Such statements as this amount to nothing—the honorable gentleman, with all due respect, not knowing what he was writing about—except as going to show the vague and imperfect impression of the popular mind concerning this region at that time.I will give for what it is worth a claim, set up in this same congress-
