AMONG THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. 129 



just enough of danger to be apprehended to keep the mind 

 in a lively state of excitement. In a journey like ours, the 

 desolate but interesting country we were passing over; con- 

 jectures as to where our night's camp would be formed; 

 the probability of an attack upon us by our Indian neighbors 

 — all formed subjects for thought and conversation during the 

 day, while our nights were enlivened by the brighth^ blazing 

 campfires, and by well told tales from lips of those who had 

 been participants in the scenes they were describing, and by 

 broad-mouthed jokes more remarkable for point than refine- 

 ment. To further make our evening camps interesting, dis- 

 cussions would arise between the Saint and Gentile portions 

 of our company in regard to their respective forms of religion ; 

 the former contending with a zeal worthy of a better cause 

 that their "peculiar institution" was ordained by God; and 

 the latter battling for the adverse side of the question ; and 

 the dispute would sometimes be continued well on to the 

 noon of night, or until the fires had gone down, when the 

 tear-drawing smoke and chilling atmosphere would warn 

 the testy combatants to repair to their respective dormitories. 

 We encamped on the evening of the 19th at the foot of a 

 long canon, and about a fourth of a mile from a stream 

 which had a habit of sinking and rising, like many other 

 streams of this singular country. It was an extremely hilly 

 region, covered with occasional groves of stunted cedars, but 

 supporting only a scanty supply of yellow grass, which sprang 

 up in patches between the omnipresent clumps of wild sage. 

 The night was a very cold one, and the ground was covered 

 with a thin coating of snow, which had fallen while we were 

 in a more northern but less elevated locality. We felt the 

 cold sensibly increasing as we advanced (for the country 

 becomes more elevated as we approach the rim of the Great 

 Basin), and we had great difficulty to keep warm while riding 

 in our clumsy stages, so that occasional pedestrian tours 



