322 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



slopes. The cedar prevail- throughout, but, although the trunk attains a considerable 

 diameter, it generally has the shape of a stunted shrub. A small pine, with eatable 

 seed (P/ints tHot/<>plt///his), accompanies the former, and occasionally the mountain- 

 mahogany and a tew other small trees or shrubs are met with. A low growth of wil- 

 lows occasionally borders the margin of springs. Only in the Sierra Nevada, the Wah- 

 satch Mountains, and on the banks of Carson River, larger trees of various kinds were 

 found. 



The fall of rain is too irregularly distributed, and altogether insufficient, to sustain 

 a better vegetation. There is no season for the development of more tender plants- 

 The frost is immediately succeeded by drought. Therefore cultivation is confined to 

 points where the soil is good and irrigation possible, of which the light sandy loam is 

 particularly susceptible. Naturally these advantages are only combined in narrow 

 strips, in some mountain valleys, at the foot of the higher ranges, or near very copious 

 springs ; districts which form but a small portion of the whole area. A few spots, 

 only, which by the influence of constant moisture have a thoroughly decomposed soil, 

 will bear crops without irrigation, and are in some instances exceeding fertile. 



The soil and climate in the neighborhood of Salt Lake are best adapted to wheat, 

 vegetables, and root crops ; also, fruit trees, apples and peaches, thrive well. A small 

 New Mexican variety of corn produces well, and is cultivated to a limited extent ; still 

 it is frequently killed by frost, and the crop, therefore, uncertain. I have also seen 

 tobacco growing, but the leaves were exceedingly coarse and quite woolly; a wild species 

 of tobacco was found at several points. Cotton has also been raised in the southern 

 part of the Territory, but the success would appear to be very doubtful. 



The elevation of the Salt Lake Valley is from 4,200 to 4,300 feet above the ocean. 

 In mountain valleys which are more than 1,000 or 1,500 feet higher, cultivation may 

 prove very uncertain. The late frosts and early cold and snow, common at this eleva- 

 tion, would confine the growing and harvesting seasons in too narrow limits. Still, 

 with a judicious selection of crops, even there permanent settlements might flourish, 

 which have other advantages not enjoyed by those lower down. The same may apply 

 to most of the valleys in the more elevated, central portion of the line of our survey. 



MINERAL WEALTH. 



Valuable and interesting minerals occur at various points in the western and 

 central part of the Territory of Utah. Some of them are of the highest importance. 



Gold.— The route passes through the gold-fields, on the east side of the Sierra 

 Nevada, which lately have created much excitement in California and throughout the 

 country. Close on the road, at Chinatown, on Carson River, near longitude 119° 30', 

 we found a number of Chinese engaged in washing gold out of the sand, gravel, and 

 bowlders at the mouth of Gold Canon ; among which I noticed pieces of dioritic and 

 trachytic porphyry, and other igneous and metamorphic rocks, forming the walls of 

 the canon; also brown hematite and quartz. They made use of the "rocker" and 

 | ' long torn," and were, generally, making from So to S8 a day per rocker. The gold there 

 is a fine sand gold, apparently much alloyed, for which the traders were paying $13.50 

 per ounce. The finer particles must have been swept farther by the force of the cur- 



