Year: 1859

/ my-.m OrmOnS at HOmes


SALT LAKE CIrY, July Is, 1859.


A party of us visited the Lake on
Saturday. 1t is not visible from this
city, though it must be from the noun
tains which rise directly north of it,
and more remotely on all sides; but
Antelope, Stansbury, and perhaps 9TH
er islands in the Lake, being mainly
covered by high, rugged hills or noun
tains, are in plain sight from every part
of the valley. The best of these
islands is possessed by the Church -
(Mormon) as herd ground or rancho
for its numerous cattle, and is probably
the best track for that purpose in the
whole of the Territory. That portion
Of the Lake between it and the valley
is SO shallow that cattle may at most
seasons be safely driven over to the
island, while it is SO deep (betwen three
and four fee0 that none will stray back
again, and it would be difficult and dan
gerous to steal cattle thence in the
night, when that business is mainly
carried on. So the Church has a large
and capital pasture, and her cattle null
| tiply and wax fat at the least possible
expense. The best canon for wood
near the city is likewise owned by 'sthe
Church"-how owned / cannot pre-
tend 10 say-but whoever draws wood
from it must deposit every third load
in the Church's capacious yard. These
are but specimens of the management
whereby, though the Saints are gene
rally poor-often quite poor, so that a
Saint who has three wives can some
times hardly afford to keep two beds
yet ''the Church has a comfortable
allowance of treasure laid up on earth.
And her leading apostles and dignita-
ries also, by a curious coincidence,
seem to be in thriving circumstance.
1t looks to me as though neither they
nor the Church could afford to have the
world burned up for a while yet.


l rejoice to preceive that dam over
the Jordan is in progress, whereby a
considerable section of the valley OF
that river (4O miles long by an average
of 20 broad) is to be irrigated. There
are serious obstacles to the full success
of this enterprise in the inequality Of
the plain, which is gouged and cut up
by numerous (now dry water courses
but, if this project is well engineered
it will double the productive capacity
of this valley, and l earnestly trust il
may be. Let the Jordan be so damned
and It's water conducted into literal
canals that its whole valley may be
amply irrigated, and there are few
tracts of like area that will produce
more generously, albeit majority oi
its acres now seem as sterile and hope
less as the Great American Desert


That this lake should be sal.
is no anomaly. All large bodies oi
water into which streams discharge
themselves, while they have severally
no outlet, are salt. If one such il
fresh, that is an anomaly indeed. Lake
Utah probably receives as much saline
matter as Salt Lake; but she discharg
es it through the Jordan and remains
herself fresh while Salt Lake, having
no issue save by evaporation, is proba
bly, the safest body of water on earth
The ocean is comparatively fresh; ever
the Mediterranean at Leghorn is not
half so salt. | am told that three bar
rels of this water yield barrel of salt
that seems rather strong, yet its intense
saltness, no one who has not had it il
his eyes, mouth, his nostrils, can rea
lize. You can no more sink in it thar
in clay bank, but very little of it ii
your lungs would suffice to strangl'
you. You make your way in from ;
hot, rocky beach, over chaos of vol
canic basaltthatis tryingto the feet; bu
at the depth of yard or more yo'