The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-07-09
THE GREAT SALT LAKE-CAPTAlN
STANSBURY'S EXPEDITION.


Capt Stansbury. sent out by Government to
make an examination of the Valley OF the Salt
Lake, writes home: ;.
s"From the knowledge gained by this expedl
tion, / am of the opinion that the size OF this
lake has been much exaggerated; and from OBJ
servatiou, and what have learned from the
Mormons, who have made one or two excur.
sions upon it in a small skif, have been indu-
ced to believe its depth has been much overra-
ted. That it has no outlet Is now demonstra-
ted beyond doubt and am convinced from
what have seen, that It can never be OF the
slightest use for the purposes Of navigation
The water, for miles from the shore, wherever
Ihave seen it, is but few inches In depth; and
if there be any deeper water it must be IN the
middle. The Utah river or the Jordan as the
Mormens call it) is altogether too insignificant
and too crooked to be Of any use commercially.
The greatest depth of the Utah lake that we
have found is sixteen feet; so that for the pur.
poses of a connected line of navigation, neither
the river nor the lake can be of the slightest
utility: Such at least, is my present impress
sion. Further examination of Salt Lake may,
perhaps, modify this with regard to the latter
The river connecting these two lakes is forty
eight miles in length"
ale found that the whole western shore OF
the lake consists of immense level plains Of soft
mud, inaccessible within many miles of the wa
ter's edge to the feet of mules or horses, being
traversed frequently by meandering rls OF salt
aud sulphur water, which apparently sink and
seem to Undue and saturate the whole soil, ren.
dering it miry and treacherous. These plains
are but little elevated above the present level OF
the lake, and have without doubt, at one time,
not very long since formed part of it. The
plains are, for the most part. entirely denuded
of vegetation, excepting occasional patches OF
Artemesia and "grease wood" In an estIma-
ted distance of one hundred and fifty miles on
one part of the route, fresh water and grass
were found only in one spot"
"In the latter portion of this first desert, we
crossed field of solid salt, which lay encrus-
ted upon the mud plain, SO thick that it bore up
the mules with theirpacks so perfectly that they
walked upon 1t as If it had been a sheet OF ice
slightly covered with snow. The whole plain
was as level as floor. We estimated this field
to be ten miles in length, by seven in width, and
depth of the salt from one.halfto three.quarters
of an inch A strip of some three miles in
width had been previously crossed, but it was
not thick, nor hard enough to prevent the ami
mails from sinking through it into the mud at
every STEP The salt in the solid fields were
perfectly crystalised, and, where it had not be-
come mixed with the soil, was as white and fine
as the best specimens of salina table salt. Some
OF it was collected and preserved.
"After crossing the field of salt we struck
upon a fine little stream of rnnning water, with
plenty of grass, lying at the foot OF range
of mountains. which seemed to form the Yves
tern boundary OF the immediate valley of the
lake
"We were as have every reason to believe,
the first party of white men that ever succeeded
in making the entire circuit the lake by land.
| have understood that it was once circumnav.
igated by canoes, in early times, by some trap
pers, in search of beaver, but no attempt by
land has ever been successful"
The party had been absent six months isola-
ted among the mountain SHOWS, but hope to
get throug with the examination by next fall.