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On advancing up the Platt and its tributary, Sweet Water river, the traveler’s attention is attracted by a kind of salt he occasionally sees upon the ground along the road, which by examining he finds to possess strong alkaline properties. The waters of the Platt and Sweet Water rivers are also impregnated so strongly that whenever the rivers are so low as to disclose the sand-bars long enough for them to dry upon their surfaces, this salt is seen abundantly upon them.

A few miles east of Independence rock, along our route, we saw several ponds, or small lakes, with an incrustation of this salt several inches thick. These places the emigrants call saleratus lakes, from the known fact that it has the property of raising bread.

Advancing a few miles, we come to Independence rock.—This rock is hardly worthy of notice, except for the many inscriptions made upon it by emigrants. It is a coarse granite rock about 100 feet high, covering about 20 acres of ground, standing alone and near enough to our road to read its inscriptions on passing it.