The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-07-24

Salt Lake City anu hts sicIhitys
The correspondents of the New York pa
pers with the Utah army, have communi-
Gated interesting and graphic descriptions
of the valley and city of Salt Lake, from
which we make the following extracts:
=. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.
| have ceased to ridicule the extravagant
rhetoric of the Mormons about the s'Valley of
the Mountains" or to wonder that a people
so fanatical by nature should have found in
the scenery which surrounds them inspira-
ton for the "war." / have traversed the
Tyrol, wandered through Switzerland, tramp
ed with apartyof German students over the
hills of the Paiitinate, have crossed the Ale
.ghalncs half adozen times, and have waded in
the troutbrooks of Northern New Hampshire
so many summers that am familiar with ev-
cry landscape between Lakes Umbagog and
Connecticut, but | have never seen pano-
rama 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 willow and alders and
hawthorn bushes, whose twigs interlaced,
aud often hung so low under the load OF
leaves and blossoms that even when we bent
down on the necks of our little Indian po-
nieS, they swept our backs. Through the
interstices of the foliage we could catch
glimpses of the mountain sides, streaked by
slides 81 gravel, and studded with masses of
sandstone, surrounded by twttering fiocks
OF birds which build their nests in the crew
ices of the rock. The ridges we crossed be-
tween kanyon and kanyon were covered
with fields of luxuriant grass and flowers
From them, whenever the sun shone clear,
we. could see on the west and south the
broken line of the Wahsach range; but
through the morning haze only the outline
of its white crests was visible, and our eyes
were strained to discern more
THE ROAD, AND FIRST VIEW OF THE CITY.
Echo Kanyon opens on to the Weber Riv-
er, which the road follows for several miles
to ford. The scenery along the ralley is
as romantic as a dream of the vaIev OF
Rasselas. The horizon on the north and
south is bounded by corrugated ridges, above
which rise rocky peaks streaked with snow.
There seems to be no outlet for the road, but
after crossing the ford the mouth of kan
yon is seen on the west, into which the road
turns. 1t passes over a series of high ridges
down into the East Kanyon, through which
flows Buskman's Fork. Here we were
struck by heavy thunder storm, and forced
to the camp. The rain pattered on US all
night-long, and lasted through the next fore
noon. We climbed the Big Mountains into
the cloud, and lost, of course, the famous
| view from its summit. Tho clouds lifted as
we descended into Emigration Kanyon. Al
down the slope of the mountain the road
was lined with rose bushes in full bloom
clusters of columbines and parti-colored
turfs OF wild flowers, dropping under tht
weight of rain drops, and just visible through
/ the mist.
lt was not until we emerged from emf.
/ grafton Kanyon that we obtained our first
view of the city. The sky was clear over.
head, and the sun was burning away tht
! clouds from the SUBMITS Of the West Noun.
I tains. They still hung low down on tn,
/ peaks which bound the valley on the south
/ east, almost covering the snow upon tht
/ crests of the range. The line of the Grea
Salt Lake was glittering along the western
horizon. The transition was so sudden tina
the whole party uttered shout of delight
We spurred our ponies down the long slope
those of the company who had lived in tn,
city pointing out the prominent buildings a
we galloped along-the timbered cupola o
the Court House, the mansion and the Lior
House of Brigham Young, the Tempt,
square, and the Arsenal. All down tn,
valley on each side of the great southern
road, were broad fields of grain, to whicl
the showers had impaired an additiona
green. Through the plain we could trac
the windings of the Jordan by the glitter o
1 the sun light on its bends. As we rod
through the streets hardly soul was visi
bic. AT last we saw group of half-nakc,
Indian boys padding in one Of the rivulet
which run along the cutters. The city
deserted.
THE LAKE.
The Hera,ds correspondent thus describe
Salt Lake, and its character:
Like blue tinted mirror rejecting th