Show 107 about one hundred and fifty miles long and fifty broad The ranges of mountain peaks which Captain Bonneville speaks of as rising from its bosom are probably the summits of mountains beyond it which may be visible at a vast distance when viewed from an imminence in the transparent atmosphere of these lofty regions Several exist in the lake one of which large islands certainly is said to be mountainous but not by any means to the extent required to furnish the series of peaks above mentioned Captain Sublette in one of his early expeditions across the mountains is said to have sent four men in a skin canoe to explore the lake who professed to have navigated all round it but to have suffered excessively from of the lake being extremely salt and thirst the water there being no fresh streams running into it Captain Bonneville doubts this report or that the men accomplished the circumnavigation because he says the lake receives several large streams from the mountains In the spring when the which bound it on the east streams are swollen by rains and by the melting of the snows the lake rises several feet above its ordinary level during the summer it gradually subsides again leaving a sparkling zone of the finest salt upon its shores Considering that this account was written from notes completed after the return of Bonneville in 1835 it is almost unbelievable that such imaginary accounts could be written by him Even though he had not actually seen the lake Bonneville should have been able to give a better and more accurate account than this After all Walker ' s expedition around the northwest side of the lake to California had disproved the existence of great rivers on the west shore so elaborately described by Bonneville (or Irving) The fact that Bonnboat expedition eville doubts the veracity of the four-mand the knowledge gained by that expedition marks his account an |