Mi 



UTAH. 



contain a tingle spot available for agricultural purposes. The little 

 yalley of the Uintah River, a more southern tributary of the Colorado, 

 is much warmer and more promising. But all this eastern part of 

 the country i, with this exception, barren. 



Utah possesses no great navigable rivers. The Colorado, as already 

 mentioned, is the only riTer which flows out of the Great Basin, and 

 it is a stream of little consequence till it has Bowed some distance 

 along the territory of New Mexico. There are indeed accumulated in 

 the gorges of the mountains unfailing stores of snow, whioh furnish 

 during the whole of the summer abundant and perennial streams, 

 which in some instances possess a considerable volume of water; but 

 many of these never reach the bases of the mountains, and the great 

 majority are lost in the arid plains. A few find their way to the 

 lakes, but from the lakes, except from one to another, there H no out- 

 let. Some of the streams which connect the lakes are however of 

 considerable value for irrigation, and may become of essential impor- 

 tance for manufacturing purposes. The most valuable of these rivers 

 is the Jordan, a rapid etream which unites the Great Salt Lake with 

 Lake Utah ; it is on this river that Salt Lake City is built, and already 

 several manufactories are established along its banks. 



Of the numerous lakes which are in the territory the largest and 

 most remarkable is the Great Salt Lake, which lies at the northern 

 end of Great Salt Lake Valley. This lake is about 70 miles long, 

 from 20 to 30 miles wide, and has a shore-line of 291 miles. Its 

 water is saturated with chloride of sodium (salt) ; Dr. Gale, who made 

 an analysis of its water for the United States government, says that it 

 contains full 20 per cent, of pure chloride of sodium, and not more 

 than 2 per cent, of other salts, and is one of the purest and most 

 concentrated brines in the world. The specific gravity of the water 

 Is 1-170. Several picturesque islands rise to a great altitude above 

 the surface of the lake. On the mountains on each side of the lake 

 are several distinct terraces, exhibiting unmietakeable evidences of 

 this valley having been at some time the bed of a great inland sea. 

 The other lakes are much smaller than the Great Salt Lake ; the 

 water of Lake Utah, which is connected with the Great Salt Lake by 

 the river Jordan, is said to be quite fresh. It receives several streams 

 from the mountains. In the neighbourhood of the Great Salt Lake, 

 and in other part* of the territory, are several hot and sulphureous 

 springs. 



Oeoloyy, *e. Metamorphic, Silurian, and Carboniferous rocks 

 prevail. In the neighbourhood of the Great Salt Lake rocks of 

 granitic and sienitic character occur, with hornblende rocks, and 

 talcose- and mica-schists. The more elevated portions of the lake 

 shore and mountain summits appear to consist of carboniferous lime- 

 stone, which, in tome localities, lose their granular character, and 

 become sub-crystalline, or threaded with veins of calcareous spar. 

 AH the elevated ranges on the north, south, and west of the Great 

 Salt Lake, seem to be capped with the carboniferous limestone, which 

 generally rests on a coarse granular sandstone. In some localities 

 the sandstones are overlaid with a coarse conglomerate, which U 

 sometimes partly altered so as to assume the character of a quartz 

 rock. Cretaceous strata occur in several places; and along the 

 valleys are tertiary clays, tec. Good building-stone is quarried In the 

 vicinity of Salt Lake City. Of the mineral wealth of Utah little is 

 really known. 



tit, Production*, Ac. A large proportion of the country 

 is uninhabitable and unproductive, but that portion which is available 

 for agricultural purposes, though limited in extent as compared with 

 the intervening desert tracts, is much of it of extreme fertility ; and 

 according to Captain Stansbury, who made a careful survey of the 

 territory for the government of the United States, fully sufficient for 

 the support of a large, though not dense, population. These fertile 

 and habitable tracts are for the moat part confined to the narrow 

 strips of alluvial land along the bases of the mountains and the 

 bottoms of the warmer and more sheltered valleys. Along the 

 western foot of the Wahiatch range occurs one of the richest of these 

 tracts, a narrow slip only a mile or two wide, but stretching for more 

 than 800 miles in length. In the valley of the Jordan It is much 

 wiilcr ; and there aro voider patches in several other of the valleys, as 

 in those of the Tuilla, of the Timpougas and others of the Traverse 

 Range. In fact the most available part of the Great Basin appears to 

 consist of the valleys along iU eastern border, sheltered by the 

 Wahsatch range. The most productive of the cultivated soils consist 

 of disintegrated fcldspathic rocks, mixed with the debris of the lime- 

 stones. There also occur in the valley bottoms very rich vegetable 

 .in' I marly loams. 80 productive are some of the soils that Captain 

 Btansbury mentions an instance of a bushel of wheat producing on 

 three acres and a half of land a yield of ISO bushels; and other 

 authorities speak of 50 or 80 bushels of wheat to the acre as being 

 by no means unusual, but there can, we think, be no doubt that such 

 must be exceptional cases. 



In the valleys the climate is milder and drier than in the same 

 parallel of latitude on the Atlantic, aud tho winters are much more 

 temperate ; in the Salt Lake Valley the thermometer seldom descends 

 I tut on the higher arid plains the heat is often oppressive. 

 Over these plains the mirage is frequently observed in the warm season. 

 The eastern section of the country is cold. Throughout the habitable 

 portions of the territory rain seldom falls between May and October, 



UTAH. 963 



and can never be relied on for agricultural purposes. Artificial irri- 

 gation is therefore requisite to agricultural success ; but the character 

 of the country happily admits of irrigation being effected with com- 

 parative ease in the more fertile valleys, although there are extensive 

 tracts of hind which will not admit of cultivation on account of their 

 being beyond the application of irrigation. 



The principal cereals grown are wheat, oats, maize, barley, and rye. 

 Very little buckwheat is raised. The common potatoes grow luxu- 

 riantly ; of sweet potatoes the crops are limited. AH the vegetables 

 peculiar to the middle and western states succeed here. The sugar- 

 beet grows to a large size, and is being raised, though not largely, 

 for making sugar. Cotton, the sugar-cane, and rice will, it is said, 

 grow in some districts, but they are evidently not suited to the climate. 

 Tobacco and flax are raised in small quantities. A portiou of the 

 territory is well adapted for grazing, though the bunch grass on tho 

 lower slopes of the mountains, which at present feeds vast herds of 

 antelopes and deer, is burnt up during the summer months. Horses 

 are the animals of which the inhabitants perhaps possess the largest 

 proportionate number ; but they have a considerable number of cattle, 

 and there is a growing attention being paid to sheep, which are in great 

 request for their wool. 



The country in its natural state is almost destitute of trees. The 

 ouly timber found is in the more sheltered ravines, on the banks of a 

 few of the streams, and occasionally on the bases of some of the moun- 

 tains. Wild game abounds. The antelope, deer, bear, and panther 

 are very numerous. The lake-islands are frequented by aquatic birds 

 in astonishing quantities. The more common kinds are swans, geese, 

 ducks, curlews, plovers, gulls, blue herons, cranes, pelicans, &o. Mos- 

 quitoes and sand-flies are very numerous and troublesome. But the 

 greatest insect pest is a large kind of cricket, which at irregular 

 periods appears in enormous numbers, and commits terrible ravages ; 

 it is said that the corn crops are this year (1855) almost entirely 

 destroyed by them. 



Utah from its insulated situation must be to a great extent thrown 

 upon its own resource*, if the peculiarities of its population did not 

 cherish by every means their separate self-dependent condition. Cut 

 off by lofty and difficult mountains and vast deserts from all other 

 settled states, with agricultural resources little more than sufficient 

 for the supply of its own increasing requirements, and without any 

 staple product or material required by the aria or luxuries of other com- 

 munities, it is not likely to have any considerable amount of external 

 trade or commerce ; while there will probably be a sufficient stimulus 

 to the growth of such manufactures as are required for ordinary 

 domestic purposes. With California regular communication is main- 

 tained, but the cost of transit is too great for California to offer a 

 market for the produce of Utah. On the other hand, from Salt Lake 

 City to St. Louis, the nearest considerable market, is upwards of 

 1600 miles. Some modification would undoubtedly be wrought by 

 the construction of the projected Great Pacific railway, but in any 

 case Utah must remain to a great extent a country separated geogra- 

 phically, politically, and commercially. The local government has 

 done everything it could to encourage the establishment of factories, 

 and there are already several woollen-mills, potteries, hardware-works, 

 ftc., especially along the valley of the Jordan. Flour-mills are iu 

 operation very generally. 



tiiciiiont, Touru, <tc. Utah is divided into 12 counties. Fillmorc, 

 a little village, in the south-western part of the state, is the political 

 capital ; but the chief city, indeed the only one of any consequence 

 is Salt Lake City. There are several other 'cities,' but they aro 

 merely collections of a few adobe cottages. 



Salt Late City, or at it is officially designated, the City of tint Salt 

 Late, is situated on the east side of the Jordan River, a strait which 

 unites Utah Lake with the Great Salt Lake, in 40" 45' N. Int., 112 5' 

 W. long., and at an elevation of 4300 feet above the sea. The popula- 

 tion in 1850 was over 6000; it has since largely increased, but wo 

 have only vague estimates of its numbers. The city was laid out in 

 July 1847, under the direction of Brigham Young, the Mormon 

 prophet, as the great central city of the Mormon people. The space 

 marked out was four miles long and three miles, broad, the same size 

 as Nauvoo ; the streets intersect at right angles, and are 132 feet 

 wide ; and the houses are ordered to be set back 20 feet from the 

 front line of the lot, and the intermediate space to be planted with 

 shrubs or trees. A plot of several acrea is set apart for the site of the 

 great temple, which is to be built on a scale of the greatest possible 

 splendour, far surpassing the famous temple of Nauvoo. The houses 

 are mostly built of adobe, or sun-dried bncks, and have a neat appear- 

 ance ; but large houses and public establishments are now built of 

 atone. There are several manufactories and mills In the vicinity of 

 the city, and salt is largely made on the borders of the lake. Several 

 schools have been established, and a site has been set apart on one of 

 the terraces of the Wahsatch Mountain for the erection of a university. 



Government, Htttory, Ac. The government of Utah territory is 

 exactly similar to that of NEW MEXICO. 



The territory of Utah originally formed a part of the Mexican 

 province of Alta, or Upper California, and, with the rest of that pro- 

 vince, was transferred to the United States by treaty in 1848. But 

 the whole of the province had really passed out of the bands of 

 Mexico for some yean before the formal transfer ; an-1 while the tract 



