of his voyage first “fixed a long pole, with the arms of France done upon a plate of lead.”  The following is his description of the “Long River”:  “You must know that the stream of the Long River is all along very slack and easy, abating for about three leagues between the fourteenth and fifteenth villages; for there, indeed, its current may be called rapid.  The channel is so straight that it scarce winds at all from the head of the lake.  ’Tis true ’tis not very pleasant, for most of its banks have a dismal prospect, and the water itself has an ugly taste; but then its usefulness atones for such inconveniences, for ’tis navigable with the greatest ease, and will bear barks of fifty tons, till you come to that place which is marked with a flower-de-luce in the map, and where I put up the post that my soldiers christened La Hontan’s Limit.”

A detailed map accompanies this imaginative voyage up this most imaginary river.  It is represented as flowing east through twenty-five degrees of longitude, numerous streams putting into it on either side, with mountains, islands, villages, and domains of Indian tribes, whose very names have at this day sunk into oblivion.  The map was afterward published, in 1710, by John Senex, F.R.S., as a part of North America, corrected from the observations communicated to the Royal Society at London and the Royal Academy at Paris.

This discovery of Baron La Hontan excited, even at that early day, the spirit of enterprise and speculation which has proved so marked a feature in the national character.  In a work published in 1772, and entitled “A description of the Province of Carolina, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisiane, by Daniel Cox,” the then proprietary, the first part of the fifth chapter is devoted to “A new and curious discovery and relation of an easy communication between the river Meschacebe (Mississippi) and the South Sea, which separates America from China, by means of several large rivers and lakes.”

The existence of the Great Salt Lake of Utah was known to the early Spanish voyageurs under the intrepid Coronado, through stories told them by the Indians, but there is no trustworthy account of any of them having seen it.  To Jim Bridger, the famous mountaineer and scout, must be accorded the honour of having been the first white man to look upon its brackish waters.  He discovered it in the winter of 1824-25, accidentally, in deciding a bet.  The story of this visit to the Great Salt Lake comes down to us by the most reliable testimony.  It appears that a party of trappers, under the command of William H. Ashley, one day found themselves on Bear River, in what is known as Willow Valley, and while lying in camp a discussion arose in relation to the probable course of the river.  A wager was made, and Bridger sent out to determine the question.  He paddled a long distance and came out on the Great Salt Lake, whose water he tasted and found it salt.  Having made the discovery as to where the Bear River emptied, he retraced his lonely journey and reported the result to his companions.