78 LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
and marking the junction of the mountain slope with the plain, has been 
found productive from Hampton’s Bridge to Brigham City, a distance of 
18 miles. In some parts it has been irrigated, with the result of doubling 
or trebling the yield, but where water has not been obtained, the farmer 
has nevertheless succeeded in extracting a living. A similar but narrower 
belt of land lies at the eastern base of the Promontory range, and a few 
others have been found. In each locality the proximity of subterranean 
water to the surface is shown by the success of shallow wells, and there is 
evidently a natural irrigation. 
There is one region, however, where natural irrigation is out of the 
question, but where crops have nevertheless been secured. Bear River 
“City” was founded by a company of Danes, who brought the water of 
the Malade River to irrigate their fields. After repeated experiment they 
became satisfied that the water was so brackish as to be injurious instead 
of beneficial, and ceased to use it; and for a number of years they have 
obtained a meagre subsistence by dry farming. A district lying south of 
Ogden and east of Great Salt Lake, and known as “the Sand Ridge”, has 
recently been brought in use, and in 1876 and 1877 winter wheat was 
harvested with a yield variously reported as from 10 to 15 bushels per 
acre. ‘This success is regarded by some of the older Settlers as temporary 
and delusive, for it is said to have depended on exceptional spring rains ; 
but the majority of the community have faith in its permanence, and the 
experiment is being pushed in many valleys. In Bear River City and on 
the Sand Ridge water is not found by shallow wells, and the land is naturally 
dry. In these localities, and, so far as I am aware, in all others where dry 
land has been successfully farmed, the soil is sandy, and this appears to be 
an essential condition. Success has moreover been restricted to the line of 
valleys which lie at the western base of the Wasatch Mountains and near 
Great Salt Lake. 
This last feature depends, as I conceive, on a local peculiarity of 
climate. The general movement of the atmosphere is from west to east, 
and the air which crosses the lake is immediately lifted from its level to 
the crest of the Wasatch. Having acquired from the lake an addition to 
its quota of moisture, it has less power of absorption and a greater tendency 
