To settle a wager among the trappers who were making their first winter rendezvous in Cache Valley, Bridger floated alone in a bull boat down Bear River to its outlet to determine the river's course in the late autumn or early winter of 1824, thus making the original discovery of Great Salt Lake. But believing he had discovered a salty arm of the Pacific Ocean, he halted at such view-points as this en route to reconnoitre.
