Year: 1859

ly dlffused through the soil, aud thus inn
pregnates the springs and streams. Irri-
eating a piece Of ground strongly imbued
with alkali will often bring an incrustation
Of It to the surface, after which no trouble
from it is experienced In that place. / think
the greater proportion Of these plains or
valeys-which could easily be cleared OF
their Greasewood and Sagebush and plow-
| ed-would produce large crops of Wheat.
and of almost anything else, If they could
be irrigated. But that can never be. But
little rain falls in Summer, and that little
is speedily evaporated from the bot earth,
leaving the clay as thirsty as ever fear
it is mainly doomed to perpetual barren.
! ness


The mountains which divide these plains
exude very little water. Wherever q range
is single-that is, with broad valley each
| side of tit is apt to be not more than
one to three thousand feet hight, and so to
be early denuded of snow; its springs are
few and generally feeble, and their waters
are often dried up before trickling half way
down their sides II spring is SO copious
or so many are speedily combined, as to
form a considerable stream, they may reach
the plain; but only to be speedily drank up
by its scorched surface. Cultivation, there
fore, save in a very few narrow spots, seems
here impossible.


But wherever chaos or tumble Of noun
tains is presented--stil more where noun
tains rise behind mountains, range behind
range, rank above rank, till the summits
OF the furthest that may be seen are 1eck-
ed with snow--there the case is altered. -
| Springs are there more abundant and more
copious; the gradual melting of the snow
| swells the riYulets formed by the speedy
meeting of their waters and thus con
siderable brooks are formed and poured
down upon the subjaeent plains, as we OBJ
serve in and around Salt Lake City, and
north and west of Lake Utah. Thus
are formed Bear and Weber Rivers; such,
believe, is the origin of the Humboldt.
But such instances are far too rare in Utah.
From the Jordan to the Humboldt is about
$50 miles by the route 1 travelled, and in
all that distance the brooks and riIls I
csossed or saw, could they be collected into
one channel, would barely form decent
mill-stream. l thence travelled down the
south side Of the Humboldt for 225 miles,
and in all that distance not more than two
tributaries come in on that side, and their
united currents would barely suffice to turn
a grindstone This desolation seems there
fore irredeemable.


The mountains of central Utah are less
hopeless than the Plains. Contrary to nv
former impression, they are fairly wooded /;
! by which mean that wood is procurable
on them at almost any point. This wood
is for the most part Cedar, six to ten feet
high and from foot downward in dia-
meter near the ground White Pines Of
like size, and of equally scrubby character.
are quite common in the western part Of
the mountains l traversed, and there is
some BalSam Fir in the deeper canons,
which attains diameter of Is to so inches.
and hight of 40 to 60 feet.


But l must hurry on At Pleasant
| Valley we turned northwest up a broad
raVine, and thenceforth held that general
course to reach the Humboldt, instead of
still making west southwest directly to-
ward Carson Valley, as it is proposed here
after to do if that be found practicable
For the next l40 miles or thereabouts, our
trail led us mainly up one side of a noun
tain range and down the other, themes
across valley Of some ten miles in width
to the foot of another chain, and so on.
AS the trail naturally runs up the deepest
canons and over the lowest passes, the as
cent aud descent are rarely abrupt for any
considerable distance, and we seldom lacked
water, bat our route was the most devious
imaginable = ranging from northeast on
! one hand to south on the other Sometimes
two or three hundred square miles were
| visible at glance-the mountain-sides half
covered with Cedar and Pine, with some
dwarf Willows Rose bushes, often friug-
ing their slender riVulets; but not a tree
other than Evergreen ir sight. There is
large, pine-leaved shrub or small tree
which driver termed Mountain Mahog-
any and passenger called Red Haw,
growing sparingly among the evergreens
on some mountain slopes; which seems about
half way between thornbush and au un-
trimmed apple-tree, but nothing eIsessdeci-
duous above the size of the dwsrf Willow.
Even the Sagebush and Greasewood APP
pear to be evergreens. Grass is here not
abundant but unfailng, as it must be where
water is perennial aud wood in fair supply
The plains or valleys remain as further east,
save that they are smaller, aud, because of
the less scanty supply of water, more sus-
ceptible of Improvement


At Shell Greek, As miles from Pleasant
| Valley, where we spent our next night,
there is little garden--the FIRST since Camp
Floyd-and at Ruby Valley, so miles or so
further on, the Government has a farm 10
crop, intended for aforementioned partly cul-
tivated by the labor of the neighboring In
dians. The mail-station also has its garden;
and is cutting an abundance of hay From
this station it is expected that the new cut
Oft, saving 100 miles or more in distance To
Carson Valley will be made.


AT Ruby, the stage usually stops for the
night but we had been 6 days in making
rather less than 400 miles, and began to
grow impatient. The driver had his own
reasons for pushing on, and did so, over
road partly mountainous, rough and side
ling but, starting at 8 p NJ, we had reach
ed the next Pine Valley station, 40 miles
distant, before sunrise Here We were de-
tained three or four. hours for muley-thOse
we should have takeR beiag astEay-=but at
we started with new driver and were
soon entangled in pole-bridge over deep
.