cordance with the tastes of many of the party, they were near
enough to civilization. The command was dissolved, and Colonel Fremont
proceeded on his route to Washington. Kit Carson, about the same time,
started for Taos, where he had been for a long time anxiously expected
by his family and friends.

The description which Colonel Fremont has given of the country through
which this expedition traveled, seems to be an appropriate and almost
a necessary addition to this work. On the 24th day of May the party,
on their return, reached the Utah Lake. "Early the next day," says
Fremont, "we came in sight of the lake; and, as we descended to the
broad bottoms of the Spanish Fork, three horsemen were seen galloping
towards us, who proved to be Utah Indians--scouts from a village,
which was encamped near the mouth of the river. They were armed with
rifles, and their horses were in good condition. We encamped near
them, on the Spanish Fork, which is one of the principal tributaries
to the lake. Finding the Indians troublesome, and desirous to remain
here a day, we removed the next morning further down the lake, and
encamped on a fertile bottom near the foot of the same mountainous
ridge which borders the Great Salt Lake, and along which we had
journeyed the previous September.

"We had now accomplished an object we had in view when leaving the
Dalles of the Columbia in November last; we had reached the Utah Lake;
but by a route very different from what we had intended, and without
sufficient time remaining to make the examinations which were desired.
It is a lake of note in this country, under the dominion of the Utahs,
who resort to it for fish. Its greatest breadth is about fifteen
miles, stretching far to the north, narrowing as it goes, and
connecting with the Great Salt Lake.

"In arriving at the Utah Lake, we had completed an immense circuit
of twelve degrees diameter north and south, and ten degrees east and
west; and found ourselves in May, 1844, on the same sheet of water
which we had left in September, 1843. The Utah is the southern limb
of the Great Salt Lake; and thus we had seen that remarkable sheet of
water both at its northern and southern extremity, and were able to
fix its position at these two points. The circuit which we had
made, and which had cost us eight months of time, and 3,500 miles of
traveling, had given us a view of Oregon and of North California from
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and