A Run Overland [pp. 507-516]

A4 RUN 0 VERL AND.
view of the appetites with which over- ness and beauty of a country-can noland travellers sit down to table. where be more plainly illustrated than
The most of the ride east of Salt Lake on the overland trip.
is made in Wyoming Territory, all of Echo and Weber Canfons lie east of
which, that I have seen, was a desert. Salt Lake. They are passed by a forty
But in the Bitter Creek Mountain region, miles' ride. The scenery in these cafithe desertrosefrom common barrenness ons is grand as it is peculiar, and is
into a desolation that was almost grand ample recompense for all the previous
in its loneliness and hopeless poverty. experience of the desert. The canions
Grass almost totally disappeared, and are long and deep clefts through high
even sage-brush was not plenty. Al- mountains, and are generally only wide
kali and sand were monarchs. There enough to admit of the passage of a
were no mountains; only low hills, brawling river and the stage. Every
and sand in the early stages of pet- variety of scenery, and all of it startling
rifaction. The wind blows with ter- and novel, is seen in these canions.
rible fury sometimes, and combined Salt Lake at six, P.M., five days and
with the rain it had scarped the hills a half from Laramie. The distance beinto the most fantastic shapes. Here, tween the two is four hundred and
the face of a hill was cut to resemble seventy-five miles. The beauties of the
the flutes of an organ-there, like the Mormon city, like everything else which
battlements of a castle; here, it resem- has been written of between the Misbled an animal crouching-there, it was souri River and Nevada, are exaggerhoneycombedlike a toredo-piercedwood- ated. Nature has done more for the
pile. Death and desolation perched place in giving it a beautiful site and
everywhere; yet Wyoming is rich in rich soil, than the Mormons have done
gold and coal, and the last is a most in beautifying it.
,valuable resource in a treeless region. I remained four days in Utah, which
The drive through Bridger's Pass was in many places is a garden. Then westgrand and beautiful, and when the wel- ward again. The country between Salt
come announcement was made that we Lake and Austin is not so poor as that
-had passed the water-shed of the con- between the Missouri River and Utah,
'tinent-that all water now ran Pacific- because it is constantly intersected by
wards-we were all delighted. After we mountains. It is mountain and valley
passed Fort Bridger, the scenery began nearly all the way. But from Austin to
to mend, and the country to be valuable Virginia we have hopeless desert and
for agriculture. The lofty Wasatch alkali again. On the trip from Mormonand Uintah ranges of mountains, with domn we have balmier air, purer and
snowy tops, delighted our eyes. They clearer atmosphere, than ever before,
i.were mountains, and the first elevations and life is luxury.
-deserving the name that we had seen. Virginia at one, A.M. Sound sleep
-High mountains, with snow on their that night-satisfying and refreshing!
peaks in summer, are an almost infalli- Off for the railroad and the Sierras
,ble proof that there is a good country at ten. Reno at one. I rode up to
below. The snow will feed streams in the summit of the Sierras that night,
spring and summer, and deserts cannot and at three the next morning we
be where streams are plentiful. The in- started down the mountains for Sacra terior of our continent is a desert only mento. Nothing that is seen on the
because it is waterless and treeless. The transcontinental trip makes any show
value of water-life-giving water-pre- of comparison in grandeur with our
cious and all-powerful to the fruitful- snow-capped Sierras. In elevated peaks,
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