rabbit is the largest animal known in this desert; its flesh affords
a little meat; and their bag-like covering is made of its skins.
The wild sage is their only wood, and here it is of extraordinary
size--sometimes a foot in diameter, and six or eight feet high. It
serves for fuel, for building material, for shelter to the rabbits,
and for some sort of covering for the feet and legs in cold weather.
Such are the accounts of the inhabitants and productions of the Great
Basin; and which, though imperfect, must have some foundation, and
excite our desire to know the whole."

"The whole idea of such a desert and such a people, is a novelty in
our country, and excites Asiatic, not American ideas. Interior basins,
with their own systems of lakes and rivers, and often sterile, are
common enough in Asia; people in the elementary state of families,
living in deserts, with no other occupation than the mere animal
search for food, may still be seen in that ancient quarter of the
globe; but in America such things are new and strange, unknown and
unsuspected, and discredited when related. But I flatter myself
that what is discovered, though not enough to satisfy curiosity,
is sufficient to excite it, and that subsequent explorations will
complete what has been commenced."

"This account of the Great Basin, it will be remembered, belongs
to the Alta California, and has no application to Oregon, whose
capabilities may justify a separate remark. Referring to my journal
for particular descriptions, and for sectional boundaries between good
and bad districts, I can only say, in general and comparative terms,
that, in that branch of agriculture which implies the cultivation of
grains and staple crops, it would be inferior to the Atlantic States,
though many parts are superior for wheat, while in the rearing of