course of man. To us a greater portion of it is more than a blank; we would rather have buried, not only a part, but the whole of it beneath the billows of a vast inland sea. In other respects the map-makers have been less correct; ignorant that these arid sands could swallow up all the rivers and torrents and melted snows of the surrounding mountains, they omitted the loftiest range in North America, in order that the waters of Lake Timpanagos (the Great Salt Lake) might flow into the Bay of San Francisco. That was useless. They are thirsty still; the Rio Colorado, were it not protected by a wall of mountains, would never reach the Gulf of California. There are many lakes besides this and many streams running down from the mountains which enclose this Valley of the Great Salt Lake, all of which are swallowed up in the sands. The Valley of the Salt Lake has no outlet. The lofty range which separates it from the Pacific has yielded only to the Columbia. The Cascade Mountains have been severed only by the Great River of the West; and the California Mountains, (an extension of the same,) are unbroken. They stand like a mighty wall to separate the green valleys of Western California from this parched waste.
This Eastern portion of California, however, like Eastern Oregon, contains some green spots, to show more effectually the dreariness of all around them. Along the Eastern base of the California Mountains, there are, probably, enough of these productive spots, to induce men, in time, to inhabit them. They might be made somewhat profitable for grazing. There is a region, of considerable extent, in the neighborhood of the Great Salt Lake, which would afford excellent pasturage. There are also, on some of the Streams which empty into it, narrow valleys, which have a good soil. Only a portion of this, however, was seen by ourselves; our knowledge concerning it de-
