AMONG THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. 127 



— in allusion to the pretentious cobblestone fortifications which 

 the rebels had erected in that reverberating ravine for resisting 

 the entrance of the United States troops into the Great Valley. 

 The patriotic ardor with which the infantile Saints rolled forth 

 the song was infinitely refreshing, and their efforts were highly 

 applauded by their gentile auditory. 



Passing over a country which became more uneven as we 

 advanced, and which consisted of a continuous chain of 

 valleys bounded on each side by elongations of the same two 

 ranges of the Wahsatch Mountains which flank the valleys 

 of Salt and Utah Lakes, we reached the Sevier River on the 

 afternoon of the 18th. This river, which is about eight rods 

 wide, and so deep that it is hardly fordable, rises among the 

 mountains east of our route, and, flowing through a valley so 

 barren and cold that it is unfit for settlement, sinks about 

 thirty miles below where we crossed it. I have seen few 

 sceneries more dreary than that along this river, which runs 

 with a swift, turbid current between high, steep banks, beyond 

 which extends a desolation-cursed tract of uneven country, 

 covered with low, scattered clumps of wild sage. The Sevier 

 was explored some years ago by a party of Mormons for the 

 purpose of seeking some place along its shores whereon to 

 form a settlement, but they returned unsuccessful, after 

 having narrowly escaped being frozen to death for their 

 trouble. 



Having remained long enough to fill our water casks, we 

 crossed the river on a narrow and unsubstantial wooden 

 bridge, which threatened at every step to break and drop us 

 in the rushing waters below. We found a party of soldiers 

 encamped on the opposite shore ; being stationed there for the 

 purpose of arresting deserters from Camp Floyd, as numbers 

 were leaving that place nightly and starting for California 

 by this route. There was one of these dissatisfied sons of 

 Mars in our company, whose love of liberty was stronger 



