XVIII. 



IN A PASTURE. 



THE word " pasture," as used on the shore of 

 the Great Salt Lake, conveys no true idea to one 

 whose associations with that word have been 

 formed in States east of the Eocky Mountains. 

 Imagine an extensive inclosure on the side of a 

 mountain, with its barren - looking soil strewn 

 with rocks of all sizes, from a pebble to a 

 bowlder, cut across by an irrigating ditch or 

 a mountain brook, dotted here and there by sage 

 bushes, and patches of oak-brush, and wild roses, 

 and one has a picture of a Salt Lake pasture. 

 Closely examined, it has other peculiarities. 

 There is no half way in its growths, no shading 

 off, so to speak, as elsewhere ; not an isolated 

 shrub, not a solitary tree, flourishes in the strange 

 soil, but trees and shrubs crowd together as if 

 for protection, and the clump, of whatever size 

 or shape, ends abruptly, with the desert coming 

 up to its very edge. Yet the soil, though it 

 seems to be the driest and most unpromising of 

 baked gray mud, needs nothing more than a lit- 



