Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/448

374 thousand six hundred and ninety one square miles, or, two hundred and eighty seven million, one hundred and sixty two thousand two hundred and forty acres of land. "In other words, our original territory of Upper California, embraced twelve hundred and two square miles more than the States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, combined!"

The California Convention, in shaping their new State, thought it advisable to diminish this unwieldy empire, a large portion of which was, in truth, divided by the evident decree of nature from the Pacific region. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, at an elevation of between four thousand and five thousand feet above the sea lies that singular geographical formation which was first explored by Colonel Frémont, and is known as the Great Basin. This is now comprehended in the Territory of Utah. It is about five-hundred miles in diameter, counting either from north to south or east to west; and, imprisoned on all sides by mountains, it has its own complete system of rivers and lakes, all of which have no outlet to the Oceans on either side of the continent. Its steep interior hills and mountains are covered with forests, and rise abruptly from a base of ten or twenty miles to a height of seven or ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Many large bodies of water are confined in its capacious bosom, and among them are the Utah and Great Salt Lakes. The shores of the latter, extending in length about seventy miles, have been seized and occupied by the Mormons as the seat and centre of their future State. Immense quantities of salt are gathered from its banks when the waters of this inland sea recede during the dry seasons of these lofty plains and table lands. The waters of the Utah, however, are perfectly fresh; and, near the western edge of the Basin, is found the picturesque Pyramid Lake which is also shut in by mountains, and is remarkable for its depth and transparent purity.

To the southward of this, bordering the base of the Sierra Nevada, within the Basin, is a long range of lakes; while many copious rivers disperse their water throughout its ungenial expanse. The chief of these streams is Humboldt River, which rises in the