122 WINTER IN SALT LAKE CITY. 



for tlie construction of the stations, had to be hauled from the 

 mountains, in many cases fifteen or twenty miles distant, over a 

 rough country without roads. Almost every stick used for this 

 purpose cost from twenty to thirty miles' travel of a six-mule 

 team. This, together with the delays of getting into the canons, 

 where alone the timber can be procured, cutting down the trees, 

 and hauling them down the gorges by hand to the nearest spots 

 accessible to the teams, involved an amount of time and labour 

 which must be experienced before it can be appreciated. All this 

 had to be done, however, or the prosecution of the work would 

 have been impracticable. 



Before leaving the Salt Lake City for Fort Hall, I had engaged 

 the services of Albert Carrington, Esq., a member of the Mormon 

 community, who was to act as an assistant on the survey. He 

 was without experience in the use of instruments ; but, being a 

 gentleman of liberal education, he soon acquired, under instruction, 

 the requisite skill, and, by his zeal, industry, and practical good 

 sense, materially aided us in our subsequent operations. He con- 

 tinued with the party until the termination of the survey, accom- 

 panied it to this city, and has since returned to his mountain home, 

 carrying with him the respect and kind wishes of all with whom 

 he was associated. 



The winter season in the valley was long and severe. The 

 vicinity of so many high mountains rendered the weather ex- 

 tremely variable ; snows fell constantly upon them, and fre- 

 quently to the depth of ten inches in the plains. In many of the 

 canons it accumulated to the depth of fifty feet, filling up the 

 passes so rapidly that, in more than one instance, emigrants who 

 had been belated in starting from the States, were overtaken by 

 the storms in the mountain gorges, and forced to abandon every 

 thing, and escape on foot, leaving even their animals to perish in 

 the snows. All communication with the world beyond was thus 

 effectually cut off; and, as the winter advanced, the gorges became 

 more and more impassable, owing to the drifting of the snow into 

 them from the projecting peaks. 



We remained thus shut up until the third of April. Our quar- 

 ters consisted of a small unfurnished house of unburnt brick or 

 adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on, 

 which, every time it stormed, admitted so much water as called 

 into requisition all the pans and buckets in the establishment to 

 receive the numerous little streams which came trickling down 



