ants. We drew up, the judge was readily recognized, and I was introduced to Captains Heth, Clarke, and Gibson, and to Lieutenant Robinson. They began with an act of charity, supplying ham sandwiches to half-starved men, and I afterward spent pleasant evenings with them at Great Salt Lake City, and became Captain Heth's guest at Camp Floyd. Their kindness and hospitality lasted to the end of my stay. After the usual "liquoring up," they pointed to Ash Hollow, the depths below, where the Mormons had intended to make a new Thermopylæ. Promising to meet them again, we then shook hands and resumed our road.
The steep descent on the counterslope of Traverse Mountain disclosed to us the first sight of Utah Lake, which is to its sister what Carmel is to Lebanon. It was a soft and sunny, a placid and beautiful landscape, highly refreshing after the arid lands on the other side. A panorama of lake, plain, and river lay before us. On the east, south, and west were rugged walls and peaks of mountain and hill; and northward a broad grassy slope rose to the divide between the valleys of the Fresh and of the Salt Lake. From afar the binding of plain round the basin appeared so narrow that the mountains seemed to dip their feet into the quiet reservoir; and beyond the southern point the lone peak of lofty Nebo stood, to adopt the Koranic comparison, like one of the pins which fasten down the plains of earth. A nearer approach discovers a broad belt of meadow, rich alluvial soil, in parts marshy, and in others arable, wheat and root-crop flourishing in the bottom, and bunch-grass upon the acclivities. The breadth is greater to the west and south of the lake than in other parts. It is cut by many a poplar-fringed stream that issues from the tremendous gorges around—the American Fork, the Timpanogos[1] or Provo River, and the Spanish Fork. On the near side, beyond the winding Jordan, lay little Lehi, whose houses were half hid by black trees; and eastward of the Utah Water, dimly visible, was Provo City, on a plain watered by four creeks. Such were the environs of the Sea of Tiberias.
The Utah Lake, another Judean analogue, derives its supplies from the western versant of the Wasach. It is in shape an irregular triangle, the southern arm forming a very acute angle. The extreme length is thirty miles, and the greatest breadth is fifteen. It owes its sweetness, which, however, is by no means remarkable, to its northern drainage, the Piya Ogwap, alias Utah Outlet, alias Jordan River. Near the shores the water soon deepens to fifteen feet; the bottom is said to be smooth, uniform, and very profound in places; but probably it has never been sounded. The bed,
- ↑ From Timpa, a rock, and ogwabe, contracted to oge, a river, in the Yuta dialect. In English maps published as late as seven years ago, "Timpanogos" is applied to the Great Salt Lake! Provo or Provaux is the name of a Canadian trapper and trader, who in past times defeated with eighty men a thousand Indians, and was killed at the moment of victory. The Mormons call the City Provo, and Gentiles prefer as a "rile" Timpanogos.
