on a comparative plain. This I judged to be its termination, the ridge
recovering its rugged character with the Table rock. It will be seen that
it in no manner resembles the places to which the term is commonly
applied--nothing of the gorge-like character and winding ascents of the
Alleghany passes in America; nothing of the Great St. Bernard and Simplon
passes in Europe. Approaching it from the mouth of the Sweet Water, a
sandy plain, one hundred and twenty miles long, conducts, by a gradual and
regular ascent, to the summit, about seven thousand feet above the sea;
and the traveler, without being reminded of any change by toilsome
ascents, suddenly finds himself on the waters which flow to the Pacific
ocean. By the route we had traveled, the distance from Fort Laramie is
three hundred and twenty miles, or nine hundred and fifty from the mouth
of the Kansas.

Continuing our march, we reached, in eight miles from the Pass, the Little
Sandy, one of the tributaries of the Colorado, or Green river of the Gulf
of California. The weather had grown fine during the morning, and we
remained here the rest of the day, to dry our baggage and take some
astronomical observations. The stream was about forty feet wide, and two
or three deep, with clear water and a full swift current, over a sandy
bed. It was timbered with a growth of low bushy and dense willows, among
which were little verdant spots, which gave our animals fine grass, and
where I found a number of interesting plants. Among the neighboring hills
I noticed fragments of granite containing magnetic iron. Longitude of the
camp was 109 deg. 37' 59", and latitude 42 deg. 27' 34".

9th.--We made our noon halt on Big Sandy, another tributary of Green
river. The face of the country traversed was of a brown sand of granite
materials, the _detritus_ of the neighboring mountain. Strata of the
milky quartz cropped out, and blocks of granite were scattered about,