Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/36

e. Mountain Trout. We found wild Goats, and large flocks of Geese, Ducks and Cranes; but they had been so much hunted, by the Emigrants, that it was almost impossible to kill any of them. On the 4th we came to where the valley appeared to terminate, –the River turning short to the left, and making a breach through the high range of hills on the west; but the general course of Bear River is nearly North. Here we crossed over the hills, and again came into the valley beyond. On the 7th, we reached the Soda Springs. They are on the East side of Bear River, and are scattered over a level space, about equal, in extent, to one square mile; with a slight inclination to the river, and elevated above it some fifteen feet. A large portion of this level space is covered with a stinted growth of Pine and Cedar. The earth is of various colors. In some places it is almost perfectly white, and in others, quite red, &c. Above, below and on the opposite side of the River, the valley is rich, and covered with fine grass. The Mountains, on the North and East, are barren; but on the West, they are covered with Pine. The Springs are deep pots in the earth, from one to fifteen feet across, and generally without an outlet. The water appears to be originally fresh, and seems to rise to a common level in all the Springs; and in these pools, which have been probably made by strong jets of the rising gas, it becomes highly charged. A slight hissing sound, is occasioned by the escapement of the gas. The water, in many of the Springs, where the surface exposed is small, is cool, very pleasant, and has a fine, pure and lively acid. About half a mile below, and immediately on the bank of the River, there is a Spring where the water, (which is quite warm,) at intervals of fifteen seconds, is thrown several feet in the air, from the centre of a small conical rock, which it has formed about it. A few feet from where the water escapes, there is a hole in the rock, connected with the channel through which the water passed, which inhales and exhales the air, like an animal breathing. There are numbers of dried-up fountains, similar to this, back from the River, hollow truncated cones, from three to thirty feet in diameter. Several Springs rise in the bed of the River, the water of which is quite warm. Every thing here has the appearance of recent and powerful volcanic action, and doubtless the causes still exist, at no very great distance. Five miles below the Soda Springs, the River makes an acute angle