The Arkansas banner., 1844-01-09


 would be thankful to be transplanted to sucf desert. But strange to relate, this pseudo unlnhabItable region is, according to hi. own confession, already partially inhabited Here and there, he says. around the post. established by trading companies, on the banks of rivers, few fields have been culti- vated, and hamlets (small villages have beer formed by enterpristng Americans, who fint abundant custom for their productions iron various parties which roam over the wilder. ness. Nor does it require the power o prophecy for us topredict that, as soon as the United States shall have fixed military posts at proper distances, then the whole route will be settled m like manner by the same people
 Advancing still further, you come to the desert, properly so called, of which he has drawn up highly wrought, and in some re- sspects inaccurate description but even this lnhospltable region, he admits, is not without It's redeeming features-fruitful ridges and scattered spots of fertility I cannot with stand the temptation to read you Mir. Farm hams description of some of these places. on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, that you may judge how far the assertion is era tultous, that the desert can never become a place of fixed settlement
 Old Park lies In the valley of Grand river, which Is branch of the Colorado of the West. 1t IS there, says Farnham, transpa- rent stream, 300 yards wide, six to ten feet deep, and current of six miles an hour- These valleys contain extensive meadows and woodlands, filled with antelopes, deer, horses, grouse, wild turkeys, geese and ducks. Page 51
 Trumbletan Park, near the Tree Buttes, and also in the valley of Grand river, is a beautiful savannah, with groves of pine, spruce, fir, and oak
 The glades were splendid many were, when he passed, covered with heavy growth of timothy, or herd grass, and red top in blossom. The mountain flax covered acres as densely as 1t stands in cultivated fields.- The tame grasses of Europe-all that are valuable for stock-the best and most sought after by every intelligent farmer of Christen- dom-are there indigenous. (P 56.)
 At Fort David Crockett, in the valley of Green river, rich mountain grasses grow wild all winter. (P. 59.)
 The vicinity of Great Bear river will, he says, ill the course of time, become one of the most prosperous abodes of cultivated life. (P. 70.)
 The Soda Springs, from the healthiness and beauty of the locality, and the magnifi- cence of the scenery, will hereafter be throng- ed with the gay and fashionable of both sides of the continent. (P. 71)
 The passage of the Rocky Mountains, our English Editor, to please his ministerial en- ployers, represents as an herculean task; but ln this, also, he is mistaken. Mr. Farnham says that loaded wagons can pass them, even where he did, without serious Interruption lie saw at Fort Bassaw, on a river of the same name, which Is branch of the Sapin, the remains of one horse Yankee wagon, brought thither by some missionaries from the State of Connecticut; and he adds, that fortunately for the next of our countrymen who shall attempt to cross the continent, safe and easy passage has lately been disco vered, by which vehicles of the kind may be drawn through to the Wallawallan The new route alluded to is, 1t is presumed, the one taken by MT. Townsend and his party in 1891.
 On the 9th of June, he tells us, they en- camped at Independence Rock On the banks of Sweet Water, which is one of the head waters of the north fork of the Platte. They were consequently on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. They passed through the Great Gap at place generally called the SBull-pen,' having on their right hand the Wind river cluster of the Rocky Mountains, the highest land in North Amer ica, and on their left hand Long's range of the same mountains
 On the l2th, they advanced over the plains of the Sweet Water, lat. 43 deg. min., long. no deg 30 min
 On the l4th, they left the Sweet Water, and proceeded southerly to Sandy river, which is branch of the Colorado of the West; thus having, in five days, passed the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains, with comparative ease!
 They proceeded down Sandy river to Green river, the Sheetskader of other travel lers, and a branch of the Colorado of the West, into which Sandy river emptes thence to Muddy creek, branch of Bear ri- yer, which empties into the salt lake, or lake Bonneville; thence to Bear river, which they struck only one hundred miles from the place where 1t enters the lake; thence to White Clay Pitts, on Bear river; crossed over to Blackfeet river at the Three Butes thence to Ross creek, small branch of Lew is river, also called Snake river and Sapin ri- yer; thence to Lewis river, and down Lewis river to the Columbia
 It is much to be regretted there is no good map of these regions.
 But the last and most formidable obstacle of all to the settlement of Oregon, from the States, this editor and his ministerial friends tell us, are the Cumanches, numerous and ferocious tribe of Indians, who; he says, are the best riders and the best shots in the world These, more formidable than the Bedouins, he says, hover over the wilder ness like birds of prey, ready to bounce upon the unwary traveller. But this Indian story will produce no effect upon the Americans, who will smile at the idea of being intimi- dated by handful of Cumanches [Ap- plause.