a large quantity of machinery for the purpose was purchased in Europe in 1852, and taken over the Plains in the fall of that year. The whole expense exceeded $100,000, and was contributed principally by Mormons abroad, in connection with some having capital, who had but recently gathered with the Saints, under strong encouragements held out that it would be a profitable investment. The machinery was put into partial operation in the winter and spring of 1853, and, owing partly to want of skill in the workmen, but mostly to the fact that the beet was found to be strongly impregnated with alkaline salts, the article manufactured so far has been miserably poor, and the concern is likely to prove an unfortunate failure.

Another drawback arises from the great scarcity of timber. The Valley of Salt Lake is nearly as bare of trees as though it had been blasted by the breath of a volcano. A few of the mountain streams are skirted with a scanty growth of cotton-wood and aspen; some of the cañons have a small quantity of maple; and the mountain sides are sparsely supplied with stunted cedar and pine. Wood for fuel in the city can only be obtained by a cartage of about fifteen miles, from places of difficult access, and the price ranges from ten to fifteen dollars per cord. Timber for fencing, building, and mechanical purposes, is equally difficult to be obtained, and bears a corresponding price. The evil, too, is increasing; the supply is becoming more and more scanty, and in comparatively a few years, unless the coal can be brought into general use, the expenses of living, from this cause alone, must be greatly enhanced. The Mormons are looking forward to the pe

riod when a rail-road, constructed from the iron found in Iron county, will be the means of distributing the coal found in the same region. Some efforts have been made by way of encouraging the manufacture of iron, and the excavation of the coal-beds, but they are feeble and tardy. The Saints are at present too much engaged in building the Temple to devote their whole energies to the development of the resources of the Territory. They have a very convenient place of worship; and it might seem that the Temple, which, from the plan of its construction, promises to cost a round million, might be postponed to the growing necessity for a permanent supply of fuel. But it is to be noted that one item of their creed is, that their friends who have died out of the pale of the Church may be baptized by proxy, and thus saved from Purgatory; and that this baptism can not effectually be performed except in the Temple. It is hard to have friends in infernal durance, but most people would let them roast a little longer, rather than run the risk of freezing themselves. Those who put faith in this absurdity are, of course, under the strongest possible impulse to go on with the structure; and those who do not believe in it, believe, nevertheless, that the Temple will form a nucleus around which the Saints can be gathered without danger of dispersion.

In a political point of view, the settlement of this isolated region has been, and will continue to be, of great importance, as the half-way house between the eastern and western portions of the continent. The emigrant, on his tedious journey to Oregon or California, becomes weary and dispirited when he reaches

this point-his cattle worn down, his wagon broken, and his provisions exhausted. Here he can recruit, and lay in new supplies; and it seems as if Providence had overruled the Mormon fanaticism to the performance of uses in this respect, little dreamed of by the fugitive Saints when they made it their abiding-place. The benefits derived from this source have very much promoted the prosperity of the Mormons, by making a market for their surplus grain, and furnishing them with supplies otherwise difficult for them to obtain. In 1850, the emigrants were very numerous, and their wagons, cattle, tools, farming utensils, and household furniture, which were got along to this point, were sold to the inhabitants at the lowest rates in exchange for pack-animals and provisions. Many emigrants, too, every year, become utterly destitute at this point, and are compelled to labor for the means of further prosecuting their journey. Hundreds remain all winter, and work for a bare living; and a large number of the indications of industry and enterprise, in the form of buildings, fences, water-ditches, and other improvements, for which the Mormons have received credit, owe their existence to the toil of these temporary sojourners.

The legitimate business of the country is grazing. It is an inland region, pent up between lofty mountains, and is, and always must be, without commercial facilities. Its rivers are scarcely navigable to any extent, and its lakes can never connect points of sufficient importance to make them available in this respect; but there are thousands of acres which produce, in great abundance, nutritious grasses, upon which cat

tle, horses, and mules can subsist and thrive the year round. The worn-down animals of emigrants are purchased at low rates, and, after being recruited upon these extensive ranges, are driven to a sure and profitable market in California, where enormous profits are usually realized. Some of the finest breeds can now be found in Utah; and this business is beginning to be appreciated as the most lucrative in which the inhabitants can be engaged.

The shrewd merchant lays in at St. Louis a stock of goods adapted to the wants of the people of the Basin, fits up a train of wagons, to be drawn by oxen or mules, and wends his way to the Mormon capital. At Salt Lake, in exchange for goods at handsome profits, he collects a drove of cattle, horses, and mules for California. Hundreds of able-bodied men, wishing to seek their fortunes in the great El Dorado, can be had for the mere victualing, to assist in conducting such a train; and the entire expenses of the adventure sink into insignificance in comparison to the heavy profits realized in the great western market. Mr. Livingston, of the firm of Livingston and Kinkead, may be mentioned as a pioneer in these bold enterprises. He es⚫tablished himself at Salt Lake City in 1849, in an adventure of this description, which seemed doubly hazardous to his friends, from the remoteness of the region and the character of the inhabitants. It was an experiment, but he plunged boldly into it; and by liberal dealing, strict mercantile honor, great firmness, and far-reaching sagacity, has, though anti-Mormon so far as religious views are concerned, gained a healthy influence with the population, and established this kind

of business upon its proper basis. His numerous adventures by "flood and field" make him an interesting companion; and many, compelled to a winter's residence in that out-of-the-way part of the earth, have been laid under deep obligations for his numerous kind

nesses.

If the design of the Mormon rulers in selecting the Great Basin as the seat of their power was to isolate their people from the rest of the world, they certainly made a happy choice. The Mormon capital is unapproachable from any civilized point except by a tedious journey of from eight hundred to one thousand miles. In a severe winter it is entirely inaccessible: the mountain passes then lay in so bountiful a supply of snow as to set human perseverance at defiance; and the luckless sojourner, who has been accustomed to his daily paper, must content himself with speculations as to events transpiring in the outside world for three or four months. This isolation has its conveniences and inconveniences; it protects the Saints from Gentile influence or persecution, and enables the leaders to carry out, without let or hinderance, the most singular experiments upon human superstition and credulity which have been witnessed since the Dark Ages. But the expenses of living are great: every thing which can not be raised from the soil, and which the customs of civilized life have rendered necessary to eat, drink, and wear, cost at least four times as much as in the States, owing to the great land transportation.

Great Salt Lake City presents a very singular appearance to the eye of a stranger. It is built of adobe or sun-dried bricks, and is of a uniform lead color, with