Year: 1859

! also is scarce and bad here; we tried sever
al Of the springs which are found at the


bases OF the southern mountains, and found


them all brackish, while not a single stream


flows from those mountains in the Eve or
six miles that we skirted them, and


am told that they afford but one or two
scanty rivulets through the whole extent Of
this valley. In the absence Of irrigation,
nothing is grown or attempted bat wild
grass; of the balfdozen cabins we have
passed between the Jordan and Lake, not
one had even the semblance of garden or
of any cultivation whatever. A shrewd


woman who had lived seven years near the
, Lake assured me that it would do no good
to attempt cultivation there; :" too much
! alkalp was her reason. learn that, on
: the city side of the Jordan, when irrigation
was first introduced and cultivation attempt
, ed, the soil, whenever allowed to become
dry, was covered, for the first year or two
with some whitish alkaline substance or
compound; but this was soon washed out
and washed off by the water, so that no
alkali now exhibits itself, and this tract
produces handsomely. Let the Jordan be
so damed and its water conducted into





amply irrigated and there are few tracts Of
like area that will produce more generous


ly, albeit majority of its acres now seem as
sterile and hopeless as the great American


Desert


That this Lake should be salt, is no


anomaly, All large bodies of water into
which streams discharge themselves, while
they have severally no outlet, are OF
should be salt. If one such is fresh
that is an anomaly indeed. Lake Utah
probably receives as much saline matter as
Salt Lake; but she discharges it through
the Jordan and remains herself fresh; while
Salt Lake, having no issue save by eva
poratiOn, is probably the safest body of
water on earth. The ocean is comparative
ly fresh; even the Mediterranean at Leg
, horn is not half so salt. / am told that
| three barrels of this water yield barrel of
salt that seems rather strong, yet its in
tense saltness, no one who has not had it in


his eyes, his mouth, his nostrils, can realize.


You can no more sink in it than
in clay-bank but very little of it in
your lungs would suffice TO strangle you


You make your way in from hot, rocky


beach over a chaos of volcanic basalt that
is trying to the feet; but at a depth of a


yard or more you have fine sand bottom,


and here the bathing is delightful


The water is of light green color for


ten or twenty rods; then " deeply, darkly,


beautifully blue" No fish can live in it ;


no frog abides it; few birds are ever seer


dipping into it, The rugged mountains il


and about it-just such scarped and seam


ed and quilted precipices as l have beer


describing ever since l reached Denver


have little Fir and Cottonwood or Quak


ing Asp in their deeper ravines or behind


their taller cliffs, but look bare and desc


late to the casual observer ; and these cut


the Lake into sections and hide most of il


from view. Probably, less than third o.


it is visible from any single point. But this


sufices.


LIFE IN UTAH


These Mormons are in the main an indus.


trious, frugal, hard-working people Few


of them are habitual idlers; few live by


professions or pursuits that require no ply


sical exertion. They make work for but few


lawyers know but four among them
their differences and disputes are usually
settled in and by the Church; they have NO
} female outcasts few doctors, and pay nc
! salaries to their preachers-at least, the
leaders say so. But small portion of them
use Tea and Coffee. Formerly they drank
; little or no Liquor; but. since the Army
: come in last year, money and whisky have
: both been more abundant, and now they
drink considerably. More than thousand
5 barrels of whisky have been sold in this
city within the last year, at an average of
not less than So per gallon, making the to-
, tai cost to consumers over $3.50, 900 where.
, Of the Mormons have paid at least half
: If they had thrown instead, $l50,000 in
/ hard cash into the deepest part of Salt
, Lake, it would have been far better for
them. The appetite they are acquiring or
, renewing will cling to them after the Army


and its influx of cash shall have departed
and Saints who now drink little will find
themselves as thirsty as their Valley, be-
! fore they suspect that they care anything
, for liquor. As yet, believe, they have
! few or no drunkards; but there is nothing
more deceitful than the appetite for LIQUOR.
, As yet, Utah has not a single export OF
any kind; the Army supplies her with cash +;
when that is gone, her people will see hard
, er times. She ought to manufacture al
J most everything she consumes, or foreign
, debt will overwhelm her Yet, up to this
} hour, her manufacturing energies have been
most unhappily directed. Some 5000, ,OOO
was expended in preparations for Iron-mak
, ing at place called Ceder City; but the
, ore, though rich, would not anx, and the
enterprise had to be totally abandoned
, leaving the capital dead loss. Wool anC


Flax can be grown here cheaply and abun
: dainty; yet, owing to the troubles last yeal
, 40 spinning and weaving machinery bas
: yet been put in operation; believe some is
, now coming up from st. Louis. An at
tempt to grow Cotton is likely to prove a
/ failure, as might have been predicted. The
Winters are long and cold here for the lati-
| tude, aud the Saints must make cloth or
shiver. trust they will soon be able to
clothe themselves.


! Sugar is another necessary of life which
they have had bad luck with. They cal
grow the Beet very well, bntit is said &
? yield little or no Sugar-becaase. Il Is sun
posed, of anlexcess of alkSm in the SOIL
5 The Sorghum has not yet been turned tc