Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery

by N. D'Anvers

From the center of the lake rose several islands, some of them 3,250 feet above its level, but no sign of animal or vegetable life could be detected on any of them. Equally lonely and deserted were the wild, weird heights and dreary stretches of briny wastes shutting in the shores of the “still innocent Dead Sea” itself, and it was with a feeling almost akin to shrinking that Fremont made preparations for launching his boat upon its waters.

After a somewhat perilous voyage, during which the clothes of the explorers became incrusted with salt, the boat was brought within wading distance of one of the smaller islands, and, landing, Fremont carefully examined its strange cliffs and masses, finding them also covered with the apparently omnipresent salt. A few temporary tents were then constructed of the driftwood scattered on the shores, and after kindling large fires to excite the wonder of any straggling savage on the lake shore, the successful explorers—the first of their race to spend a night near the site of the now world-famous Salt Lake City—lay down to sleep.

In the morning, to the surprise of all, the noise of huge waves breaking on the rocks was the first sound to greet their ears, and no time was lost in making their way back to the mainland. The “still and lifeless bosom” of the lake had changed its character, and, though powerless to give or nourish vitality, proved its capacity to destroy. The fragile india-rubber bark was more than once nearly swallowed up in its treacherous waters, but late in the day all landed from it in safety, and on the 12th September the journey was resumed.

Following much the same route as that taken on the way to the lake, our hero now led his men back to the Bear River, and thence through the great basin bearing his name, and inclosing the vast system of rivers and creeks belonging to the newly discovered Dead Sea, to a ravine commanding a pass in the dividing ridge between the waters of the Bear River and the Snake or Lewis fork of the Columbia; thus, so to speak, throwing a bridge of connection across from his own work to that of his predecessors.

On the 19th September the expedition arrived in safety at Fort Hall, a trading post situated in a low and fertile valley, some twenty miles long, formed by the confluence of the Portneuf and Snake Rivers. The winter was now rapidly approaching, yet Fremont resolved to push on first to the Columbia River, and from thence home by a new route, making what he characterizes as a “great circuit to the south and south-east,” with a view to the exploration of the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. No persuasions could induce him to alter this determination, although the task he had set himself was pronounced absolutely impracticable. He arrived in safety at Fort Vancouver, about ninety miles from the mouth of the Columbia, on the 16th November, and almost immediately commenced the return journey; but he had not proceeded far, when he found himself in a pathless wilderness haunted by bands of wandering Indians, from whom scarcely any guidance and no food could be obtained.

On the 10th December, a lake, to which the name of Tlamath was given, was discovered; and on the 14th a stream was struck, which Fremont, from astronomical observations taken, concluded to be the principal branch of the Sacramento. He now hoped to find an opening in the mountains through which he could reach the districts explored in the early part of his trip; but in this he was unsuccessful. Three weeks of exhausting wandering brought the weary travelers to another remarkable mountain lake, to which, on account of a tapering rock rising from its center, the name of Pyramid was given.

TEMPLE BLOCK, SALT LAKE CITY.

While the indefatigable hero was ascertaining the exact position of the newly-found sheet of water, a few half-naked Indians, speaking a dialect of the Snake language, made their appearance, and said they lived in the rocks hard by, and that there was a river at the end of the lake. Cheered by being again in a country where human beings could live, Fremont led his party round the lake to the so-called river, and found it to be merely a fresh-water stream flowing into, not out of, the Pyramid. This at once convinced him that he had discovered, not the head-waters of any river, but a vast interior lake without outlet.

The last of the cattle brought for provisions for the party had been killed a day or two previously, and it was now a question of the utmost moment whether an attempt should be made to pierce the mountains on the east or go down through those on the west to the sea, when a number of Indians came out of a neighboring thicket who said their water was full of fish. The camp was at once pitched, and a little later the hungry explorers were enjoying a hearty meal of salmon trout. The natives, however, could give but little information about their country. They made a drawing of their river on the ground, representing it as issuing from another lake in the mountains three or four days distant, beyond which was a single mountain, and further away still were two rivers, on one of which white people like their guests traveled.