Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1858-08-05
THE ARMY In SALT LAkE.
NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE MORMONS
Description of the City and Country.

From our New York exchanges we con
dense most interesting account OF the at
rival of the Peace Commissioners at Salt
Lake. of the action of the Mormons, and
the appearance of the city and the valley,
which our readers will find well worth the
space it occupies. The telegraph and the
dispatches of the Commissioners have fur
nished us with the results of the expedition,
but these details are interesting aside from
Commissioners C and Mormons. The COR
respondent of the Tribune, who started on
the 18th from the camp. with the United
States Marshall $ company, gives us the fol-
lowing
Description OF THE COUNTRY.
have ceased to ridicule the extravagant
rhetoric of the Mormons about the VALLEY
of the Mountains or to wonder that a
people SO fanatical by nature should have
found in the scenery which surrounds them
inspiration for the "war." l have ira
versed the Tyrol. wandered through Swift
zelland, tramped with party of German
students over the hills of the Palitinate,
have crossed the Alleghanies half lozen
times. and have wa led in the trout brooks
of Northern New Hampshire so many sum
mers that am familiar with every land
scape between Lake Umbagog anl,,Connect-
icut, but | have never seen a panorama of
mountain scenery so varied and beautiful as
on our ride from Bear river to the Valley
Of the Great Lake For miles and miles
in the kanyonS the road winds through
thickets of willows AMI al,lers and haw-
thorn bushes, whose twigs intcrlaced, and
often hung so low under the load of leaves
and blossoms that even when we went
down on the necks of our little Indian po-
mics, they swept our backs. Through the
intcrstices of the foliage we would catch
..limpSes Of the mountain sides. streakcd
by slides of gravel, and studded with mass
es OF sandstone, surrounded bv twittering
docks of birds which had built their nests
in the crevices of the rock The ridges
we crossed between kanyon and kanyon
were covered with fiel.ls of lux,iriant grass
and flowers. From them, whenever the
sun shone clear, we could see on the west
ami south the broken line of the Wahsatch
range; but through the morning haze only
the outline of its white crest was visible,
and our eyes were strained to discern more
MORMON FoE1IFIcATIoNs.
For the first night we camped at sunset
about half way through Echo kanyon.
which is twenty miles long. We started
the next morning at dawn, and just about
sunrise caught glimpse of the Mormon
Notifications, none of which were visible
during our first days ride. AS the Kan
yon approaches Weber River. it dwinlles
in width TO five or six hundred feet The
nor .hern side be ONES a perfect wall of
rock. which rises perpendiularly hundreds
of feet above the roal. The southern side
retains the character of an abrupt noun
tain slope covered with grass and stuntcd
bushes The creek, with its dense fringe
fills the whole bottom between the road
and the bluffs. The first indication that
we were approaching the Notifications was
the sight of piles Of rock heaped into walls
pierced with loopholcs, which were visible
on every projecting point ofthe cliffs along
the northern side. from most of which a
pebble could be snapped down upon the
road. Shortly after, on turning bend in
the kanyon, we saw that all the willows
along the creek had been cut away, AMI
through the clear space ditch about FIVE
feet wide and ten feet deep was dug across
the whole bottom, which the road crossed
on a corduroy bridge The dirt thrown
from this ditch wal packed so as to form
dam on which log; were SO placed that i.
would answer also for breastwork, be-
hind which rflemd could be posted under
cover a sluiceway at one end allowed a
free flow to the crek, but this could easily
be filled up, and tie material for that pur-
pose was lying near at hanl. About 300
yards further on another brcastwork and
/ ditch had been constructed from the creek
to rock near the base of the northern
cliff Space sufficient for the passage Of
wagon was left swcen the rock and the
foot OF the cliff, aid the evident intention
was to compel trains to pass beneath the
precipice which hid probably been mined
At the distanccIof 30 or 60 yards was
another dam and ditch which the road
crossed again on stemporary bridge. The
purpose of this d1ch was to prevent wag-
ons from passiny to the opposite side
of the bottom and avoiding the vicinity of
the cliff A hun,ted yards further on was
the last dam and IS accompanying breast
work They stretch the whole way across
the bottom. Blythe aid Of this dam the
kanyon could be oFerhowed for several hun
dred yards to hetlepth of FIVE or six feet.
1t was CONSTRUCTED Just above the mouths
of two narrow goges which enter the kan
yon at this point. nearly opposite one an
other. The earth washed down out Of the
gorge On the southern side forms tongue
OF sand which extends nearly half way in
to Echo kanyonhnd obviates the necessity
of so long damas the first one Of the Sc
rles. A gully wished by the rain down
the center OF this tongue was dug over and
arranged so as to brm breastwork in con-
n,ction with the lam Stone walls were
built across the pouth of each OF the mar
row gorges. O1the slope of the steep hills
adjoining the goEo on the southern side of
the kanyon, ditcles we're dug and embank
mcnts made in frpnt Of them at different
heights. These command the whole of the
Notifications helSw. But fapking party,