themselves on Bear River, in Cache, or Willow Valley. A discussion arose as to the probable course of Bear River, which flowed on both sides of them. A wager was made, and Bridger sent to ascertain the truth. Following the river through the mountains the first view of the great lake fell upon him, and when he went to the margin and tasted the water he found that it was salt. Then he returned and reported to his companions. All were interested to know if there emptied into this sheet other streams on which they might find beavers, and if there was an outlet; hence in the spring of 1826 four men explored the lake in skin boats.[1]
During this memorable year of 1825, when Peter
- ↑ This, upon the testimony of Robert Campbell, Pac. R. Rept., xi. 35, who was there at the time 'and found the party just returned from the exploration of the lake, and recollect their report that it was without any outlet.' Bridger's story of his discovery was corrroborated by Samuel Tullock in Campbell's counting-room in St Louis at a later date. Campbell pronounces them both 'men of the strictest integrity and truthfulness.' Likewise Ogden's trappers met Bridger's party in the summer of 1825 and were told of the discovery. See Hist. Nevada, this series. Irving, Bonneville's Adv., 186, says it was probably Sublette who sent out the four men in the skin canoe in 1826. Bonneville professes to doubt this exploration because the men reported that they suffered severely from thirst, when in fact several fine streams flow into the lake; but Bonneville desired to attach to his name the honor of an early survey, and detract from those entitled to it. The trappers in their canoes did not pretend to make a thorough survey, and as for scarcity of fresh water in places Stansbury says, Exped., 103, that during his explorations he frequently was obliged to send fifty miles for water. Other claimants appear prior to Bridger's discovery. W. M. Anderson writing to the National Intelligencer under date of Feb. 26, 1860, says that Provost trapped in this vicinity in 1820, and that Ashley was there before Bridger. Then it was said by Seth Grant that his partner, Vazquez, discovered the great inland sea, calling it an arm of the ocean because the water was salt. That no white man ever saw the Great Salt Lake before Bridger cannot be proven; but his being the only well authenticated account, history must rest there until it finds a better one.
congressional report, by one Samuel Adams Ruddock, that in the year 1821 he journeyed from Council Bluff to Santa Fé, and thence with a trading party proceeded by way of Great Salt Lake to Oregon. The report says: 'On the 9th of June this party crossed the Rio del Norte, and pursuing a north-west direction on the north bank of the river Chamas, and over the mountains, reached Lake Trinidad; and then pursuing the same direction across the upper branches of the Rio Colorado of California, reached Lake Timpanagos, which is intersected by the 42d parallel of latitude, the boundary between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico. This lake is the principal source of the river Timpanagos, and the Multnomah of Lewis and Clarke. They then followed the course of this river to its junction with the Columbia, and reached the mouth of the Columbia on the first day of August, completing the journey from the Council Bluffs in seventy-nine days.'
