Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/177

 SECT. V.] GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 141 which issue from the mountains west of the Colorado, is known to the Americans by the name of Great Salt Lake, and has no outlet whatever towards the sea. General Ashley's own ex- plorations extend as far south as another smaller lake, to which his name has been given, and which is situated about eighty miles south of the southeastern extremity of Lake Timpanogo^ It is also fed by a river coming from the mountains in the southeast, and has no outlet. The discoveries south and west of that place appear to belong to others, and principally to J. S. Smith. Another river known by the name of Last River, coming also from the coast, falls into another lake, also without outlet, situated in 38° north latitude, and in the same longitude as Lake Timpanogo. J. S. Smith descended the Rio Colorado of California, in the year 1826, as far soutli as the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude. Proceeding thence westwardly, he reached the Span- ish Missions of San Pedro and San Diego near the Pacific. The ensuing year, he visited Monterey and St. Francisco ; ascended the river Buenaventura some distance, and recrossed the Californian chain of mountains, called there Mount Joseph, in about the thirty-ninth degree of latitude. He thence pro- ceeded north of west, and reached the southwestern extremity of Lake Timpanogo. The eastern foot of the Californian chain, where he recrossed it, is about one hundred and eighty miles from the Pacific. There he crossed some streams, coming from the south, which may either be lost in the sands, or, breaking through the mountains, north of Mount Joseph, unite with the river Buenaventura. The course of this last river, so far as it is known, is from north to south, between and parallel to the Californian chain and the Pacific. The most southern branch of the Owyhee, a southern tribu- tary stream of Lewis's River, takes its source not far west from the northern extremity of Lake Timpanogo, and in its most southerly bend passes, in the forty-first degree of latitude, through an extremely mountainous and rocky country. The result of Mr. Smith's journey is, that the whole country south of that river, from the vicinity of the Rio Colorado to the Cali- fornian mountains, is an immense sandy plain, in which a few detached mountains are seen, " from which flow small streams that are soon lost in the sand. A solitary antelope or black- tailed deer may sometimes be seen. A few wild Indians are scattered over the plain, the most miserable objects in creation."