the only living things seen during our stay. The rock constituting the
cliffs along the shore where we were encamped, is a talcous rock, or
steatite, with brown spar.

"'At sunset, the temperature was 70 deg.. We had arrived just in time to
obtain a meridian altitude of the sun, and other observations were
obtained this evening, which place our camp in latitude 41 deg. 10' 42",
and longitude 112 deg. 21' 05" from Greenwich. From a discussion of the
barometrical observations made during our stay on the shores of the
lake, we have adopted 4,200 feet for its elevation above the Gulf of
Mexico. In the first disappointment we felt from the dissipation of
our dream of the fertile islands, I called this Disappointment Island.

"'Out of the driftwood, we made ourselves pleasant little lodges,
open to the water, and, after having kindled large fires to excite the
wonder of any straggling savage on the lake shores, lay down, for the
first time in a long journey, in perfect security; no one thinking
about his arms. The evening was extremely bright and pleasant; but the
wind rose during the night, and the waves began to break heavily on
the shore, making our island tremble. I had not expected in our inland
journey to hear the roar of an ocean surf; and the strangeness of our
situation, and the excitement we felt in the associated interests of
the place, made this one of the most interesting nights I remember
during our long expedition.

"'In the morning, the surf was breaking heavily on the shore, and we
were up early. The lake was dark and agitated, and we hurried through
our scanty breakfast, and embarked--having first filled one of the
buckets with water from the lake, of which it was intended to make
salt. The sun had risen by the time we were ready to start; and it
was blowing a strong gale of wind, almost directly off the shore, and
raising a considerable sea, in which our boat strained very much.
It roughened as we got away from the island, and it required all the
efforts of the men to make any head against the wind and sea; the gale
rising with the sun; and there was danger of being blown into one of
the open reaches beyond the island. At the distance of half a mile
from the beach, the depth of water was sixteen feet, with a clay
bottom; but, as the working of the boat was very severe labor, and
during the operation of sounding it was necessary to cease paddling,
during which the boat lost considerable way, I was unwillin