bia River, north-west to the Pacific Ocean, in latitude 46° north. Nearly the whole distance between these points, and for a width of about ten degrees of longitude, stretching east from the Sierra Nevada, is a vast territory, from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, abounding in lakes and rivers, some of the lakes being salt, and none of them having an outlet to the ocean. Into this great interior basin flow all the waters that fall on the western slopes of the Wasatch range and the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.

MINERALS AND MINING.-The mountainous regions of Utah are, doubtless, rich in mineral wealth. Discoveries hitherto have been chiefly of silver, in connection with large deposits of lead and copper. Among the canons or ravines of the Rush Lake Valley, from a hundred to two hundred mines, recently discovered, are worked to various depths of ten to one hundred feet. Some old Nevada miners, who have inspected these mines, describe them as promising to become fifty per cent. better than the famous silver mines of the Comstock Lode. In Nevada, a yield of fifty or a hundred dollars to a ton of ore is considered a fair and profitable return; but the Rush Valley ores of Utah have produced from one hundred to five hundred dollars per ton, and lodes have been opened that afford from one thousand to four thousand dollars to the ton. This last extraordinary yield was obtained from a mine opened in 1865, and named the New York lead. The further these mines are worked, the richer they grow. There are mines of bituminous coal of a fair quality over the mountains, forty miles east of Salt Lake City.

In more remote parts of the Territory, other silver mines have been discovered, and have been worked with success. Their distance from markets, the want of suitable machinery for their profitable operation, and the lack of capital among those who have discovered them, have hitherto retarded their complete development; but in the opinion of those best acquainted with these mines, they offer one of the best fields. in the West for capital and enterprise, and induce the belief that when they become better known, they will produce such an interest and excitement as will give Utah a new population and a more rapid growth. COUNTIES.-Utah is divided into the following counties: Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Great Salt Lake, Green River, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Pi-ute, Richland, Sawpete, Sevier, Summit, Toosle, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, and Weber.

Great Salt Lake City is the county town of Great Salt Lake; Provo City, of Utah, and St. George, of Washington County.

LAKES AND RIVERS.-Great Salt Lake is one of the most prominent attractions in the topography of Utah. It is a miniature ocean in the northern part of the Territory, about fifteen miles from Salt Lake City, fifty miles wide by one hundred in length, and so salt that no fish can live in it, and that three quarts of its briny water will boil down or evaporate to one quart of pure salt. Three or four quite large streams empty into it, and yet it has no visible outlet. By evaporation, in hot weather, its shores are covered with a thick incrustation of salt. has high, rocky islands; its broad expanse offers a wide space for sail

It

ing, and the scenery it presents is described as picturesque and enchanting. About 25 miles south of this, and communicating with it by the river Jordan, is Utah Lake, a body of fresh water about 35 miles in length. It is stored with trout and other fish. These lakes are elevated from 4,200 to 4,500 feet above the sea. There are also numerous small lakes in different parts of the Territory.

Bear River, coming down from Idaho, is the principal tributary of Great Salt Lake. The Green and Grand Rivers traverse the eastern basin or valley, forming the Colorado River, which flows south-westwardly into Arizona. The Grand River, the most eastern branch, rising in the Rocky Mountains, flows south-west to meet Green River, which is the larger tributary, and has its sources in the south-east part of Idaho. These streams and their affluents drain the entire eastern division of Utah. The former has a course of about 300 and the latter of about 400 miles.

OBJECTS OF INTEREST TO TOURISTS.-Of these there is no scarcity in this widely-extended Territory. Among the most remarkable objects of this region is the Great Salt Lake. In the saltness of its waters, in the circumstance of its having no outlet, and being fed from another smaller and fresh water lake, (with which it is connected by a stream called the "Jordan,") and in the rugged and repulsive character of some portions of the surrounding region, it bears a remarkable resemblance to the Dead Sea of Palestine. Instead, however, of lying 1,000 feet below, it is more than 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; its waters, moreover, being about one-fourth pure solution of common salt, are free from that pungency and nauseous taste which characterize those of the Dead Sea. Near Brown's Hole, in the neighborhood of Green River, in about 41° north latitude, and 109° west longitude, are a number of narrow canons or gorges, with nearly perpendicular walls from 600 to 800 and even 1,500 feet in height, presenting scenes of great wildness and grandeur. There are two large sulphur springs, one hot enough (one hundred and twenty degrees) to boil an egg, which is four miles from the center of Salt Lake City, and the other just the right temperature for a hot bath, (ninety degrees,) which is close to the city, and is brought into a large inclosure within it for free bathing purposes. Both the streams from these springs afford water enough for an illimitable amount of bathing, the water is highly sulphurized, and as clear as that of the celebrated Sharon Springs, and its use, either for drinking or bathing, is said to be most effective in purifying the blood and toning up the system. Other and smaller springs of a similar character have been found in the neighborhood of the city.

CLIMATE. As elsewhere remarked, the climate of the great plateau between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains, seems to partake of the characteristics of the great Tartar plains of Asia. According to Orson Pratt, the midsummer is dry and hot, the heat ranging at midday from 90° to 105°, but with cool mornings and evenings, refreshed with mountain breezes. The winters are mild, snow seldom falling more than a few inches deep in the valleys, nor does it lie long. Spring and autumn, though mild, are subject to sudden changes, and the wind is very vari

able, shifting, almost every day, to every point in the compass. Rain seldom falls between April and October; but when heavy showers do come, they are generally accompanied by thunder and hail, and sometimes with strong winds. Dr. Bernhisel and Mr. Snow say that the climate of Great Salt Lake City, in latitude 40° 45′ north, is milder and drier than the same parallel on the Atlantic coast, and the temperature more uniform, the thermometer rarely descending to zero. During three years, according to observation, the highest point attained by the thermometer was 100° above, and the lowest 5° below zero. The variation between the temperature of day and night, in midsummer, is from 20° to 40°. Frosts in Utah Valley fall as late as the last of May, and as early as the first of September.

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.-The most fertile portions of Utah are found in the valleys watered by the pure streams flowing from the neighboring mountains, and generally at the bases of the mountains the land is extremely fertile. The Mormon settlements occupy the valleys from north to south, lying mostly near the western base of Wasatch Mountains. These are highly fertile. Wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, Indian corn, and the garden vegetables of the Middle States, are the products of Utah. There is a fine bunch-grass, which, owing to the dryness of the climate, does not decay, but furnishes fodder for the cattle during winter, without being cured. The Indian corn and vines are liable to be blighted by early and late frosts. The experiments in rearing fruits do not appear yet to have been sufficiently tested to pronounce definitely as to the congeniality of the climate with their healthful production. Peaches and other fruits, have, however, been raised. But the soil of the valleys is especially favorable to the production of the small grains. Fifty and sixty bushels to the acre is a very common crop of wheat oats, and barley, and over ninety have been raised. But as on the plains, among the mountains, and on the Pacific shore, so here in Utah. as well as in Nevada west of it, and Arizona south of it, irrigation is generally necessary to successful farming. Utah, however, differs from the other regions mentioned in this: that in it agriculture, not mining, is the chief business of the inhabitants. They have been obliged therefore, to resort to extensive and general irrigation. They tap the mountain streams at various elevations, and convey the water by canals, large and small, to the gardens and fields, and by almost infinite little courses spread the water over the whole ground, over the grain, between the rows of corn, and among the trees and vegetables. This work is performed by indviduals, by villages, and by companies. The water is apportioned to those desiring it according to their land, or the amount they can afford to pay. This seems a laborious and expensive process; but the soil by this means becomes so fertile, and yields so abundantly, that, with large crops and high prices, irrigated farming is not only remunerative but very profitable. The only drawback there is lies in the fact that the mountain streams do not aford water enough for the irrigation of the valleys. The consequence is that many a tract that would otherwise become fertile and blooming as the Garden of Eden, now lies barren and unproductive.

Cotton grows abundantly in the southern settlements of Utah, and experiments with flax, the mulberry tree and the silk-worm, have proved eminently successful.

FOREST TREES.-Timber is scarce throughout this Territory, except on the mountains, and is principally composed of pine and fir trees. There are some groves of cotton-wood and box-elder in the bottoms of the principal streams, and a scrub cedar also in some of the valleys. Wood, both for building and fuel, is scarce.

MANUFACTURES.-Much progress in manufactures is hardly to be expected in so youthful a settlement; but Mr. Pratt represents them as starting up with vigor, particularly the manufacture of flour, and the more necessary implements of husbandry and houswifery, and the cheaper stuffs for clothing. The great distance for supplies from abroad, and the great cost of transport, must, perforce, encourage home manufactures. The census of 1860 reported 152 manufacturing establishments in Utah, with a capital invested therein of $412,126, using annually raw material, including fuel, worth $398,528, employing, on an average, 348 male hands and nine females, and annually manufacturing products to the value of $823,000. The policy of the Mormon leaders has been to confine the people to agriculture, and they have, therefore, pretty uniformly discouraged manufacturing and mining. Only a few of the simpler manufactures have been introduced into the Territory. There were in 1865 three cotton-mills, confined chiefly to the manufacture of cotton yarns, and one woolen-mill. There were also probably a hundred flouring-mills in the Territory. Hides being plenty, tanneries are established, and boots and shoes manufactured to a considerable extent.

COMMERCE. The trade of Utah is pretty much confined to traffic with the overland emigrants to California. They find also a ready sale for their live stock in the same State. It is possible that a trade down the Colorado River with California may be opened at some future day, as recent explorers report that river navigable for steamers of light draft for four hundred miles, or within six hundred miles of Salt Lake City.

POPULATION.-The population is principally composed of Mormons, who settled here in 1847, after their expulsion from Missouri and Illinois. Continual accessions of this new sect are arriving from all parts of the Union and from Europe. According to an enumeration made in 1863, by the Mormons themselves, the total population was 88,206, exclusive of Indians, of whom there are several tribes in a very degraded state, subsisting mostly on roots, berries, fish, etc., and living generally in caves or bushes, but sometimes in wigwams or tents, and going nearly naked. The total white population of Utah was estimated in 1865 at 120,000. The larger proportion, probably a majority, of the people of Utah are foreigners, recruits obtained by missionaries sent out over the whole world. The larger portion are English, from the factory towns of Great Britain. But Germans, Swedes, Finns, Scots, Icelanders, and even East Indians, are found there. President Young boasts that fifty nationalities are represented in Utah.

CITIES AND TOWNS.-The principal town is Great Salt Lake City. The other principal places are Brownsville, Ogden City, Prove City, Manti City, Fillmore City, and Parovan. These towns are mostly built of adobes or unburnt bricks, and are named (with the exception of Salt Lake City) in order, proceeding from north to south, and scattered over a space of nearly 300 miles, mostly near the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Fillmore is the capital of the Territory, and is situated near its center.

Salt Lake City, capital of Salt Lake County, is situated near the east bank of the Jordan River, which connects Great Salt Lake with Utah Lake, about fifteen miles south-east of the Great Salt Lake, and 4,200 feet above the level of the sea. It was laid out in July, 1847, by a company of 143 Mormons. The city contains 260 blocks of ten acres each, separated by streets which are 128 feet wide. There are eight houses in each block, so arranged that no two houses front each other. The houses are built of adobes or sun-dried bricks, covered with plaster, and generally of one story, with as many front doors as the proprietor has wives. The building lots have an area of one acre and a quarter each, except in the business, or more densely populated portions of the city, where they are of smaller dimensions. Some of the stores are built of stone, and are capacious and elegant. Through each street flows a stream of water for irrigating the gardens and private and public grounds.

Brigham Young's establishment occupies a full square, embracing several dwellings, a school-house for his forty or fifty children, extensive stables, a grist-mill, a carpenter's shop, and the "tithing" office. The last is a large edifice, wherein is deposited one-tenth of all the products of the Territory for the use of the Church. The square opposite is devoted to ecclesiastical uses, and on it are the old Tabernacle, a new and larger one in progress of completion, and the foundations of the great Temple, commenced in 1853, designed to be 150 feet long by 60 wide, and to be built in Gothic style of architecture. Within the same inclosure is the "Bowery," an immense thatch of green boughs, capable of accommodating an audience of several thousand. The general Sunday services are held here during the warm weather. Both President Young's square and the Church-grounds are inclosed by solid walls of mud and stones, twelve feet high, and walls of a like character are used for fences about many private residences.

Salt Lake City has also a theater, which, it is said, for capacity, elegance of structure, and finish, may compare favorably with the opera-houses and academies of music in the Eastern cities. In costumes and scenery, it is furnished with equal richness and variety. The performances, though by amateurs-merchants and mechanics, and the wives and daughters of citizens-are spoken of as such as would be highly creditable to any professional company. President Young built and owns the theater, and conducts it on his own private account, or on that of the Church, as he does many other valuable and profitble institutions of the Territory, such as cotton, saw and flour-mills, the best farms, etc. During the winter season, performances are given