Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-09-24


far lower than the other the road bed is
often made Of sharp-edgcd fragments Of
broken rock, hard 'enongh tostand on, hard
er still to hpld back ou The heat in this
canon on Summer afternoon is intense,
the sun being able TO enter 1t while the
wind Is not. Two OF three glorious springs
afford partial consolation to the weary,
thirsty traveller. / am confident nc pas
senger every rode down this rocky ladder /;
trust that none will until better road is
made here though good road ia such q
Eulch is scarcely possible. Fifteen miles
further, across a plain aud lower range Of
bills, brought our mai-wagon at last, a.
bout : P. m. of its seventh day from Salt
Lake City, to
THE HUMBOLDT.
am not going to describe the route
down this river, as it is the old emigrant
trail, repeatedly written about already.
only wish to record my opinion, that the
Humboldt, all things considered, is the mean
est river of it's length on earth. Rising iu the
Humboldt Mountains, hardly $50 miles
west Of Salt Lake, tits at first pure stream
-or irather streams, for there are two
main branches-but as soon corrupted by
Its alkaline surrounding, and its water for
at least the lower half of its course, is a.
bout the most detestable l ever tasted
choose to suffer thirst than drink it. Though
35O miles in length it is never more than
decent mill-stream; presume it is the only
river of equal length that never had even a
canoe launched upon its bosom. Its narrow
bottom or intervale produces grass so coarse
in structure and so alkaline by impregna-
tion that no sensible man would let his stock
eat it If there were any alternative. Here
however, there is noue. Cattle must eat
this or die-msny of them eat it and die
One of the most intelligent emigrants con-
versed with on its banks informed me that
he had oil the grass for his stock moved, as
he bad found by experience that his cattle
IT grazed upon it, pulled up much of their
grass by the roots, and these roots were
far NOR alkaline than the stalks I believe
no tree of any size grows on this forlorn
river from its forks to its MOUTH am sure
saw none while traversing the lower half
OF its course. Half dozen specimens of
large, worthless shrub, known as Buffalo
bush or Burberry, with prevalent fringe
OF Willows about the proper size for
school marln's use, comprise the entire tim
Der of this delectable stream, whose gad-
flies, musketoes, gnats, &C., are so count
less and so bloodthirsty as to allow cattle
30 unhappy as to be stationed on or driven
along this river no chance to eat or Sleep
Many have died this season of the bad wa
ter, that would have survived the water
but for these execrable insects, by which
the atmosphere, at times, is darkened. 1t
certainly is not pleasure to ride night and
day along such stream, with the heat in
tense. the dust a constant cloud, and the
roads all quilted and ground into chuck
holes; but then, who would stay in such
region one moment longer than he must
thought had seen barrennes before
on the course of the Republication the
North Platte, Green River, &c-but l
was green, if the regions washed by those
streams were not. Here, on the Humboldt,
Famine sits enthroned, and waves his scep-
tor over dominion expressly made for him.
On the above named rivers, regarded
Cottonwood with contempt here, belt,
even the narrowest fringe, of Cottonwood
would make a comparative Eden. The
Sagebush and Greasewood which cover the
high, parched plain on either side of the
rivers bottom seems thinly set, with broad
spaces of naked, shining, glaring, binding,
clay between them the hills beyond,
which bound the prospect seem even more
naked. Nota tree and hardly a shrub,
anywhere relieves their steriity not
brook, save one small one, runs down be-
tween them to swell the scanty waters Of
the river. As the only considerable stream
in the Great Basin that pursues a general
east and west direction, the Humboldt may
continue for years to be travelled but /
am sure no one ever left it without sense
of relief and thaukfalness. There can nev-
er be any considerable settlement here.
After a course, at first west by south,
then north by west, afterward southwest,
and for the last so miles due south, the
river falls into Lake Humboldt, fine sheet
of clean water, perhaps Is miles in length
and 40 in circumference. / tried to obtain
sn approximation to its depth, but could
not; those who have staid beside it longest
assuring me that no boat had ever foated
upon its waters-a statement which the
destitution of wood in all this region rem
ders credible. ] am satisfied, however, that
this Lake is being slowly filed up from the
gradual washing down and washing in of
the bills which approach it on the east and
south, and that time will make great chan
ges in its confguration and the volume of
its waters.
Al stream, not SO copious as the river,
runs from the Lake on the south, and flows
with gentle, sluggish current into large
reed marsh, which has no outlet, and said |
TO be but moderately salt. The Lake wa
ter is accounted sweeter than that of the
river. Here the Humboldt is said to sink,
Ike the Carson, Trnckee and Walker,
which issue from the Sierra Nevada and
eastwardly into the adjacent desert but
hsuspect they are all drank by evaporation
and by the thirsty sands which surround
them. The Mississippi, if it ran across the
Great Basin and kept clear of mountains.
would be threatened by similar fate.
We reached the Sink at 6l P. N. on the
29th-scarcely two days from GraYely |
Ford, where we struck the river, having in |
those two days traversed some 22O miles |
of very bad and intensely hot, dusty road. |
AT 8, we were ready to pass ''the DESERT
that is, the desolate plain which separates
The Sink of the Humboldt from that Of
the Carson. But one of our fresh mules