THE LANDS OF UTAH. 107 
The rivers and creeks bring the waters down from the Wasatch 
Mountains on the east. The high valleys among the mountains have to 
some extent been cultivated, and will hereafter be used more than at present 
for meadow purposes. In general the people have selected their lands low 
down, in order to obtain a more genial climate. Yet the irrigable lands are 
not very far from the mountains, as a glance at the map will reveal. Utah 
Lake constitutes a fine natural reservoir and discharges its waters into Salt 
Lake by the Jordan, and from its channel the waters may be conducted 
over a large area of country. The waters of the Weber and Bear Rivers, 
now flowing idly into the lake, will soon be spread over extensive valleys, 
and the area of agricultural lands be greatly increased. Westward the 
influence of the mountains in the precipitation of moisture is soon lost, and 
beyond the lake an irreclaimable desert is found. 
Near to the mountains the grass lands are fair but they have been 
overpastured and greatly injured. Out among the Basin Ranges little grass 
land of value is found. 
The amount of irrigable land in this district is estimated at 837,660 
acres. 
The lofty zone of mountains and table lands with arms stretching 
eastward, with its culminating points among summer frosts and winter 
storms, is the central region about which the human interests of the country 
gather. The timber, the water, the agricultural lands, the pasturage lands, 
to a large extent the coal and iron mines, and to some extent the silver 
mines, are all found in these higher regions or clinging closely to them. 
GRASSES. 
While the forests present but a few species of trees, the pasturage lands 
present a great variety of grasses. Between fifty and sixty species have 
been collected by parties connected with the survey under the direction of 
the writer, and these are distributed among twenty-six or twenty-seven 
genera. Most of them belong to the mountains or highlands, and are rich 
and sweet. Nearly all of them are bunch grasses. The spaces by which 
the bunches are separated are bare or occupied with weeds and shrubs. 
This is often the case on the mountains and high plateaus. A continuous 
