Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/95



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 depends, partially, upon the information of others; together with our knowledge, of the general character of the country. A great portion of this habitable region, lies North of the forty second parallel of North latitude, and is, consequently, in the Oregon Territory. But there is a large portion of the desert region, of which there is little or nothing known. What is known, concerning it, has been learned by merely passing through it, in a few places, by routes, separated from each other, by great intervening distances; yet from the dreariness of every