The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas by Frederick Marryat

The Shoshones, or Snake Indians, are a brave and numerous people, occupying a large and beautiful tract of country, 540 miles from east to west, and nearly 300 miles from north to south. It lies betwixt 38 deg. and 43 deg. north latitude, and from longitude 116 deg. west of Greenwich to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, which there extend themselves to nearly the parallel of 125 deg. west longitude. The land is rich and fertile, especially by the sides of numerous streams, where the soil is sometimes of a deep red colour, and at others entirely black.

The aspect of this region is well diversified, and though the greatest part of it must be classified under the denomination of rolling prairies, yet woods are very abundant, principally near the rivers and in the low flat bottoms: while the general landscape is agreeably relieved from the monotony of too great uniformity by numerous mountains of fantastical shapes and appearance, entirely unconnected with each other, and all varying in the primitive matter of their conformation.