The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-07-25
The Esw Saratoga.

As Salt Lake is destined to be the place
of summer resort for US west of the Mis-
sissippi, short description of what we are
to enjoy may not be inopportuns even at
this early day. With the completion OF
the projected lines of railway to the Pacific,
viii commence new era in the age OF
travel, and perhaps we Of Kansas VIII
think no more of summers jaunt to the
new Saratoga than do our metropolitan
fellow citizens of the East of a visit to
the old original. Perhaps, too, with the
consummation above mentioned, Mr..
Buchanan will have somewhat christian
| lied his Mormon supporters in that portion
of the West, so as to render it easy for
even Gentle to travel thereabouts with
impunity, although its Saharaish proclivi-
ties will deter very rapid settlement
by any except the Saints:
"The valley in which Great Salt Lake
! lies is some hundreds of miles in length.
Its soil is light and sandy, in some parts
! little better than desert, and scarcely
anywhere susceptible of cultivation. For
tunately the steep ranges of mountains
which hem it in, furnish a fair supply of
clear, cool rivulets for this purpose. The
lake some forty miles in length, is shall
low, has bottom of fine, white sand, and
margin of incrusted salt. Its waters will
! float the most unskilful and leaden swim
mer. 1t supports no living thing; and its
shores are barren of vegetation, and desc
late as those of the Dead Sea. Another
Sedan and Gomorrah might be entombed
there, and not be misburied. West from
the southern end of the lake, and twenty
five miles distant, is the site Of the Nor
mon city. The town is built upon a slope
gently inclining toward the lake. As we
stand upon the hill in the rear, and look
down upon it from distance, it presents
the appearance of densely peopled city.
But it is a city of farms. Even Fourier
could not condemn it. Each house has
its own three acres of ground. Here the
products of the larger farms are deposited
in stacks for the winter. Cool streams
from the hills are trained to irrigate and
refresh the entire town. The view is
novel, and very picturesque to the eye is
the city with its green lots, regularly
built houses of sun-dried bricks, and its
sparkling veins of water, which permeate
every field, and murmur along the streets.
In full view from the city is the lake,
placid as death. And so rare is the at
atmosphere of the re sion, that the lake seems
4 just below you, and hardly league dis
htant. But my friend Thompson assures
me, that leaving the city one sharp Janu-
ary morning, with four untamed mules
sin hand,' scampering down the slope in
a half mad shamble- gailop-and-bolt gait,
six hours elapsed before their hoofs struck
the incrusted shore, and all the while the
lake lay just before, and fooled him with
its treacherous distance.
To the south of the city, on the slope,
are the most extensive farms of the new
colony. These are abundantly irrigated,
and no land on the continent gives more
bountiful returns for labor.
An almost infinite variety of springs
gush up everywhere You will find them
on the flats and hillsides, bubbling forth
in the city streets and in the cultivated
'three acres" There are hot springs
and springs tepid, springs cold as if they
had flowed over subterranean icebeds, and
sulphur springs, strong enough for those
who delight in the atmosphere of Avon
and the White Springs of Virginia. No
valley offers greater scope for the curious
in science, or presents more novelties for
those who only look and learn not. 1
think it very kind of Nature to preserve
this prince of watering places for our
princely need"