122 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



ears, as we sat around our bright-glowing campfires, it sounded 

 pleasant, especially when compared with the mutterings of 

 the buffalo, the dismal howling of w^olves and the shrill notes 

 of the mosquito, which of old had greeted us. 



We started the next morning early, and by 9 o'clock reached 

 Battle Creek. I here beheld my enthusiastic friend, Uncle Job, 

 who looked very much as if he had just awakened from a 

 week's spree. As his blood-shot eyes did not recognize me, I 

 did not notice him, being fearful of another affecting scene. 

 After a half hour's halt, we retook our route ; the road laying 

 along the eastern shore of Lake Utah, the surrounding moun- 

 tains of whose valley were white with snow, although it was 

 warm enough on the plain on which we were journeying. In 

 the afternoon we reached Provo City, which contained a popu- 

 lation of about fifteen hundred, and was the second city in 

 point of size and importance in Utah. It is built on both 

 sides of Provo River, a few miles below the canon, the mouth 

 of which is plainly visible from here, seeming like a gigantic 

 gateway cut through the towering mountains which rise on 

 either side. The winds which came howling down this canon 

 are felt to a considerable distance from where it opens on to 

 the valley; as if some giant, with a pair of bellows in size 

 proportionate to the undertaking, was at work with his engine 

 back of the mountain. As I looked upon the opening of the 

 canon, the toils and hardships which I had experienced in its 

 depths a few days before, came vividly to my mind, and I 

 was thankful that I had accomplished that journey, and 

 that the one I was now entering on had so much less privation 

 and so much more romance about it. 



The Utah Indians, which abound among the Wahsatch Moun- 

 tains, and which are extremely warlike, were formerly bad 

 neighbors to the Mormons. After having attacked a settlement 

 they would retire with their booty to the fastnesses of this 

 canon, where for a long time they defied the enraged Saints. 



