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Journal of Western Travel
by John McTurk Gibson
edited by Weldon Hoppe
June 29th, 1859 -- Crossed the Sweetwater four times today, good roads, drove 17 miles, killed two hares and one rabbit, one of the other boys shot two sagehens. The mosquitoes are truly annoying, unlike what they are at home, where they are troublesome only in the evenings and mornings, while they never appear here only in the middle of the day, when the sun is at the hottest, and disappear altogether when night comes. The immediate vicinity of snow probably accounts for this.Powell
Travelled 18 miles. We crossed the Sweet Water four times to day. The wagons travelled 8 miles through the bluffs; I followed the river a hunting. I saw three saleratus lakes covering about 8 acres. They are white as snow. We see but few dead cattle of late. We have saw no Indians for several days. It is 340 miles from Devil's Gate to Salt Lake City. We have not found trading posts so numerous as along the Platt. The country from Fort Kearney to here is almost an entire desert. Grass grows but grows on sand entire.