The Water Is Bordered By High, Rugged Bluffs,
Composed Of Irregular But Horizontal Strata Of Yellow And Brown Or Black
Clay,
brown and yellowish-white sand, soft yellowish-white sandstone,
and hard dark brown freestone; also, large round kidney-formed
Irregular
separate masses of a hard black ironstone, imbedded in the clay and sand;
some coal or carbonated wood also makes its appearance in the cliffs,
as do its usual attendants, the pumice-stone and burnt earth. The salts
and quartz are less abundant, and, generally speaking, the country is,
if possible, more rugged and barren than that we passed yesterday;
the only growth of the hills being a few pine, spruce, and dwarf cedar,
interspersed with an occasional contrast, once in the course of some miles,
of several acres of level ground, which supply a scanty subsistence
for a few little cottonwoods."
But, a few days later, the party passed out of this inhospitable
region, and, after passing a stream which they named Thompson's
(now Birch) Creek, after one of their men, they were glad to make
this entry in their diary:
"Here the country assumed a totally different aspect: the hills retired
on both sides from the river, which spreads to more than three times
its former size, and is filled with a number of small handsome islands
covered with cottonwood. The low grounds on its banks are again wide,
fertile, and enriched with trees: those on the north are particularly wide,
the hills being comparatively low, and opening into three large valleys,
which extend themselves for a considerable distance towards the north.
These appearances of vegetation are delightful after the dreary hills
among which we have passed; and we have now to congratulate ourselves
at having escaped from the last ridges of the Black Mountains.
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