The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-07-28

The Wonders OF tho West-The Great
| Basin OF Utah and Observation-Disclosures
Wheeler's Exploring Expedition.
From the sources of the mighty Nile and the
wonders of Eastern Equatorial Africa, we pro-
pose in this article to carry the minds of our
readers to some of the SURPRISING natural
wonders of our own great land. We published
very interesting letter yesterday from
HERALD correspondent at Salt Lake City,
giving the details of government exploration
about to be undertaken in that interior great
basin of Utah and Nevada, under the command
of Lieutenant G. NJ Wheeler, of the United
States Typographical Engineers, in connection
with general scientific survey in progress for
the settlement of oil geographical doubts over
those vast regions extending from the one
hundredth degree of west longitude (Which is
near the heart of the Great Plains) to the
Pacific coast. These surveys and explorations
will be prosecuted under the act of Congress
'to establish an astronomical base, and to
continue the military and geographical surveys
and explorations west of the one hundredth
meridian We shall, however. confne our
remarks for the present to the field work for
this season proposed by Lieutenant Wheeler,
and upon which, fully equipped and provi-
stoned, he is about to enter from his present
rendezvous at Salt Lake City
His exploration will embrace areas in Utah,
Nevada and Arizona. He will examine the
southern and southeastern parts of the Great
Salt Lake Basin, and settle the mooted question
as to the identity of the drainage further south
of the Preuss and Sewer lakes and he will in
spect the mineral ranges from Salt Lake down
to the Virgin River, and thence down to it's
junction with that wild river of the great
canyons-the Colorado. The silver-bearing
ranges Of Eastern Nevada will also be ex-
amined, and the lofty, snow-clad and extensive
Wahsatch range, the eastern boundary of the
Great Basin. The geological branch Of the
survey will fix the limit within which mineral
groupings may be reasonably expected, and be-
yond which it would not be judicious to search
for them. Much of the labor of the survey
will be devoted to this object and particularly
inasmuch as, the soil of Utah and Nevada being
mostly desert, those countries must depend
upon their mineral resources. But still, in
this expedition, all the usual scientific depart
ments will be fully represented. The scientific
corps, the teamsters, packers, attendants,
&C., and protecting company Of cavalry, all
told, will number one hundred persons That
is the equipment with which Livingstone by
England should be provided. Meantime, side
parties from Wheelers corps are engaged in
geological examinations around Great Salt
Lake, and General Morrow, of Camp Douglas,
IN accomplished officer, well qualified for the
task proposes an excursion to Provost, fifty
miles south, for the examination of a number
of ancient mounds and other supposed Aztec
remains in that quarter.
Now, from what we know already of the
wonders of Utah and Nevada, we have no
doubt that the reports of these forthcoming
explorations will be of the greatest interest and
importance During the Mexican war and for
some years after it the army officers, overland
emigrants and other pioneers passing through
the Great Basin, concurred in the opinion that
it was an utterly God-forsaken country, not
worth one cent for thousand acres beyond
the few green patches along the mountain
streams which could be made productive by
irrigation. Next came those silver discoveries
in Nevada, from which hundreds of millions
have been added to the general wealth of our
country, and yet, perhaps, not over one half
the mountains of Nevada have been explored
or prospected Next came the Pacific Railroad,
which has made even the Nevada deserts along
the line valuable property, and which, from
its branch road to Salt Lake City and the
recently discovered silver mines in the neigh
borhood, have advanced real estate in that
little city to something approximating the
scale of New York prices.
From recent travellers in Utah, moreover
we learn that there isno conception in the East
of the mineral riches of that Territory that
its coal mines already furnish heavy trade to
the Pacific Railroad to the Pacific that "Rocky
| Mountain COAL" a fine bituminous article, is
the general fuel of San Francisco that this
| coal is worth more to those timberless States
and Territories from Utah westward than all
their mines of gold! end silver that the noun
tains west and south Of Great Salt Lake to
Utah Lake and its basin are lined with silver,
lead and iron that farther south there are
mountains of rock salt and mountains Of pure
sulphur-the upheavals of extinct volcanoes
that they are building the Temple at Salt Lake
City from great quarries Of the finest granite
in the world that the soda, sulphur and boil
ing springs of Utah have never been num-
bered, and that down towards Arizona there
are mountains, cliffs, riffs and canyons more
wonderful than the DEVILS Slide or the Devil s
Gate of the Weber River, or the picturesque
palisades of the Humboldt that there are still
thousands of acres of wild land in the valleys