History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE.
troubled by the cold; but here the climate is so
delightful, the air so balmy, that it is a pleasure to
breathe it, by day and by night. In the vicinity are
other valleys equally delightful. Besides the products
of the lake the Yutas hunt hares, and gather
seeds from which they make atole. They might capture
some buffaloes in the north-north-west but for
the troublesome Comanches. 19 They dwell in huts
of osier, of which, likewise, many of their utensils are
made; some of them wear clothes, the best of which
are of the skins of rabbits and antelopes. There are
in this region many people, of whom he who would
know more may consult the Native Races.
The Spaniards are further told by the Yutas of a
large and wonderful body of water toward the northwest,
and this is what Father Escalante reports of it.
"The other lake, with which this communicates," he
says, "occupies, as they told us, many leagues, and
its waters are injurious and extremely salt; because
the Timpanois 20 assure us that he who wets any part
of his body with this water, immediately feels an itching
in the wet part. We were told that in the circuit
of this lake there live a numerous and quiet nation,
called Puaguampe, which means in our language Sorcerers;
they speak the Comanche language, feed on
herbs, and drink from various fountains or springs of
and they have
good water which are about the lake ;
their little houses of grass and earth, which latter
forms the roof. They are not, so they intimated,
enemies of those living on this lake, but since a certain
time when the people there approached and killed a
man, they do not consider them as neutral as before.
"This is directly opposite the direction in which we would expect to
find the Comanches of to-day; but the Utes applied the term comanche to all
hostile Indians. Buffaloes were common in aboriginal times in Cache and
Powder River valleys as well as in eastern Oregon and Boise valley.
2J Yet another form for the name Timpanogos, a3 indeed before the end of
the following page we have ' Timpano :>is,' 'Timpanogotzis,' and 'Timpanogo.'
See note 17 this chapter. On Froisett's map, published at Salt Lake City in
1875, is the ' Fiovo, or Timponayas ' river.
15