r 0cuotci ia jpalilics, f ifcvntuve, QVflvkulture, Sce, ilToir Uin, anb cncral Intelligence. VOL 13. STROUDSBUEG, MONKOE C0QNT7, PA. SEPTEMBER 29,' IS59. Published by Theodore Sehocht TERMS. Twodot!n-sncr!"inum in advance Two dollars and a quarter, Is?1' r? and if not paid be Tore the end of the year. T.o c'o"3rs and a half. No papers discontinuet ir-v-"' sn orrcarages are paid, oxcept at the option or ' "c E- ' o. ICAdvcrtiscmcn's o" rr o sc?-c (:ci "ie-)or lebs, One or three insert. 'np.. r 00. E. c-i n.'c!i.'"on;tI inser tion, 25 cents. J.o'.c o-cs - p-o 10 :on. JOES !RIKT!IVG. Having a general assortment of large, pla'n ?nd or namental Tvpe, tve are p-epared to execute eve y do scription of Cards, Circnl.- s. Bill Hwt Notes, Blank Receipts, Justices, I.eg.i' rnti olc t'r-ks, Pamphlets, fcc, prin led with ncitrcs and c'sip.iicli, on reasonable terms at I his oQice. J. Q. DUCKWORTH. JOHN HAYN. To Country Dealers. DUCKWORTH & HAYN, WnOLRSALE DEALERS IN CrrOCCricSj Provisions JitWOfSj&C. No. 80 Dcy street, New York. June 1G, 1859. ly. AN OVERLAND JOURNEY. XIX. !rom Bridger to Salt lake. Salt Lake City, Utah, July 11, 1859. Fort Bridger, whence my last was sent, may be regarded as the terminus in this direction of the great American Desert. Not that the intervening country is fer tile or productive, for it is neither; but at Bridger its character visibly chauges. The bills wc here approach arc thinly covered with a straggling growth of low, ecraggy Cedar; the Sagebush coutiuues oven into this valley, but it is no longer universal and almost alone; Grass is more frequent and far more abundant; Black's Pork, which, a few miles below, runs whitish with tho clay-wash of the desert, is here a clear, sparkling mountain tor rent, divided into half a dozen streams by tho flat, pebbly islets on which the lit tle village or rather post is located; while, twelve miles up it? course, an im provement of 500 acres, begun some years since by the Mormons, has this season been put under cultivation, with flattering prospects. Oats, Barley, Potatoes, Peas, c., arc the crops sought; and the enter prising growers have contracts for the eupply of Fort Bridger at prices whioh will insure them a liberal return in case thoy realize even a moderate yield. This may eeem a small matter; but I doubt that there arc, in all, 500 acres more un der cultivation in 250,000 square miles or more lying between the Jorks of the Platte on the east, the Salt Lake Basin on tho west, the settlements of Ncw-jUex- ico on the south, and the Yellow Stone on the north. Yet in this radius are inclu ded several military posts at which every bushel of Grain consumed costs an aver age of S5, while Potatoes and other edible Hoots would command nealy as good pri ces, could they be bad. There are herds men at intervals throughout all this re gion who have each their hundreds of head of Cattle, but who hardly know the taste of a potato or laruip, who have nev er planted nor eowed an acre, and never contemplated the possibility of growing an apple or cherry, though they expect to live aud die in this region. I trust, uicreiorc, ua , .-5- wilUuccecd, and that it will incite to like experiments in tho vicinity of each wil- therefore, that the Fort Bridger enterprise dernets pot. The present enormous cost of our Military service in this immense desert may thus be fclightly compensated by proving tho great acsert not absolute ly worthless, and creating a batie of civ ilization for its rude, nomadic, lawless, but Lardy, bold, and energetic pioneers. Prom Fort Bridger (named after an Indian trader who first settled here; then settled as an outpoht and relief station by the Mormons when they began to people this valley, but abandoned by tbem on the approach, late in "57, of the Army, by which it has since been held) the Salt Lake trail rises over a high, broad ridge, then descends a very steep, rocky, diffi cult hill to Big Muddy, a branch of Black's Fork, where 12 miles from Bridger is l. M,!l nmrr,' tfn1nn at. vchxrh wn . P . 1 had expected to spend the night. But the next drive is 60 mile.", and our uw I conductor wisely decided to cut a piece off last evening, as the road to the other end was hazardous in a dark eight. So we moved on a little after sundown, ri bing over another broad ridge, and, after narrowly escaping an upset in a gully dug in the trail by that day's violent shower, camped 15 miles on, a'little after 11 p. m. The sky was densely clouded; the moon nearly down; it was raining a to rest, most of us under the sullen sky. , An hour or more thereafter, our mules j (which were simply tied in pairs by long ropes and thus turned out to graze) were somehow dbturbed, and our stage-men challenged and stood ready to repel the supposed depredator. BTe proved, howev er, to be a friend, traveling on mule-back from Bridger to this place, who had wan dered off the trail in the deep darkness, perhaps been carried among our animals by the fondness of bis own for congenial eocicty; so all was soon right, and the new comer unsaddled, pulled off his blan kets, and was oon couched among us. At daylight, we were all astir, and drove down to Bear River, only three or four miles distant for breakfast. We halted before eressing, beside what is here called a grocory, the only htruo tarc on that side of tho river bejog a Vilnolr ami Hi's nlmn fnnns'istlne. I believe. of a bellows and anvil under tho openaky), to which some part of our rigging - waa j U w I - - . ' 1 sent for repair, whilo wo prepared and ato breakfast. Thore were two or three men sleeping in wet blankets on the grass, who rose and made a fire on our appear ance. Tho grocery was irregularly con structed of boxes which had once con tained goods, but, having fulfilled that end, were 'thus made useful afrosh. I suppose it was six feet high, and five by , eight in diameter, though no two of its ; sides were of the Eame bight. An old ' tent cloth for covering completed the ed ifice, from which we obtained sardines, canned lobster, and prepared coffee which ', wai said to contain sugar and cream, but which was voted by our drinkers a swin j diing humbug. I believe these articles ! exhausted the capabilities of the concern; j but as we had no bread, we needed no ! more. Some of our party thought other- w.isc. however; they called for whiskey or some kindred beverage, and were indig nantly digustcd at its non-production. They had become inured to groceries con taining nothing that could by possibility be eaten, but a grocery devoid of some kiud of "rot," as the fiery beverage was currently designated, was to them a nov el and mo.-t distasteful experience. How- ever, a man was at once dipatched across .1 1. ! .11-1 .1 pint and a half of some diabolio alcohol- ic concoction, wherein the small modicum of genuine whiskey had taken to itself seven other devils worse than tbo first), and our breakfast was finished to gener al satisfaction. A word hero on tho Liquor traffic throughout this region. A mercantile I firm in this city, in order to close out j promptly its extra stock of liquors, offers ! to sell whi-ky at the extraordinarily low ! price of $3 50 per gallon. I believe the common price from jjaramie westward to the Sierra Nevada is St per gallon; but it is usually sold to consumers by the bot tle, holding less than a quart, for which the charge is $2 up to S3 50, but seldom below S'i 50. And such liquor ! True, I have not tasted it; but the smell I could uot escape, and I am sure a more whole some potable might be compounded of spirits of turpentine, aqua fortis, and steeped tobacco. Its look alono wouid condemn it soapy, ropy, turbid, it is within bounds to say that every pint or it contains as much deadly poison as a gal- Ion of pure whisky. And jet fully half the earnings of the working men (not in- tuo creeK to a similar estaDiisninent, dui inai aummu gamea, we sianu in a uroau, more happily furnished, whence be soon open, level space on the top of the Wah returned with the Indispensable fluid , satch range, with the Wintah and Bear (price S3 for a flask containing perhaps a Mountains on cither hand, forming a per- 'eluding the Mormons, of whom I have trash sells for 815 to 20 per cord. The iseen little) of this whole region are fooled scarcity and wretchedness of the limber j away on this abominable witchbroth and (I have not seen the raw material for its foster-brother tobacco, for which they a decent ax-hclve growing in all-my last i pay SI to $2 per pound I The trader thousand miles of travel) is the great I at Weber, of whom our mail-boy bought discouragement and drawback. with re j their nt-xt supply of "rot," apologetically gard to all this region. The. parched observed, "There ain't nothing bad about sandy clay or clayey sand of Plains dis : this whisky; the only fault is, it isn't appeared many miles back; there has been good." I back that assertion with my rich, black soil, at least in the valleys, whole heart. . ever since we crossed Weber River; but Fording Bear River hero a swift, the timber is still scarce, sraaM, and poor, j rocky-bottomed creek, now perhaps forty in the ravines, while ninty-nine bun yards wide, but hardly three feet deep dredths of the surface of the mountains is we rose gradually through a grassy val- utterly bare of it. In the absence of Coal ley, partially inclosed by high, perpendic- how can a region 60 unblcst be ever thick ular t-tone Buttes, especially on the right, ly settled and profitably cultivated I Tb6 gtoQc (evident, once c, outpost8 of one f tbve Buttes are known a8 Tho N We thence deseended a lon- step hill into the valley of "Loss Creek," why "lost," I could not divine, as tho creek is plainly there a fair trout-brook running through a grassy meadow, bo- tween high hills, over which we made our way into the head of "Echo Canon," 1 down which we jogged some twenty miles to Weber River. j This Canon reminded me afresh that e i vil and good arc strongly interwoven in our earthly lot. Throughout the desolate region which stretches from the Sweetwa ter nearly or quite to Bridger, wo had in .the main the best natural road 1 ever traveled dusty, indeed, and in places abrupt and rpugh, but equal in the aver- ; ? . age to the caretully made and annually : j 1. f vr reuaircu ruaua ui uuw England. But in fa,r grased Lr,avjne. h.e" me? ,n ?J BlBCF. pwu uluua F''"o i suing from their bases and gradually gath i eriug into a trout-brook as we neared the Weber, we found the "going decidedly bad, and realized that in tbo dark it could ' It is located mainly on tho bench of hard not but be dangerous. For tbo brook, gravel that slopes southward from tbo with its growing fringe of willow, choke- j foot of the mountains toward tho lako val cherry, service berry, and other shrubs, j lCy; the houses genorally small and of continually zigzagged from side to bide of , 0no story--are built of adobe (sun-hard-the Canon, compelling us to descend and ! erjed brick), and have a neat quiet look; ascend its precipitous banks and cross its I while the uniform breadth of the streets sometimes miry ted, oiten wun a smart i -i r, a. a ejnc of breaking an axle o W ltoPP!?. to feed and dine or upsetting. at the site of "Gen. Well's Camp" during the Mor mon war of 1857-8, and passed ten miles below, the fortifications constructed under his orders in that famous campaign. They seemed childish affairs, more suited to the genius of Chinese than of civilized warfare. I cannot believe that they would have stopped the Federal troops, if even tolerably led for more than an boar. We reached our next station on the Weber a little after 5 p. m, and did not leave till after an early breakfast next (yesterday) morning. The Weber is, perhaps, pt little larger than the Bear, and r.uns through a deep, narrow, rugged val ley, with no cultivation so far as we saw it. Two "groceries," a bUcksraitb-sbop, and the mail-station, are all the habita tions we passed in following down it some four. or five miles to the shaky polebridgo . ,. on which we crossed, though it is usually fordable. We Joon after jtruk off. up a rather steep, grassy watercourse, which we followed to its head, and thence took over a divide-to the head of another such, on which our road wound down to "East Canon Creek,' a fair, rapid trout-brook, ven tins region is available as a stock- nil De straggling down the mountain running thorough a deep, narrow ravine, range thousands on thousands of cattle, dopes, sad, lank, and footsore, as late as ud which we twisted, crossing and rccross-' mainly owned in the city, being pastured the lt of October. ing the Bwilt Btream, until we leic greatly diminished in volume, after track ing it through a mile or so or low, swam - py timber and frequent mudholos, and turned up a little runnel that came feebly brawling down tho side of a mountain. . i , ., n i The trail ran for a considerable distance exactly in the bed of this petty brooklet: el; this valley about 4,900. The atmos - said bed consisting wholly of round, 'phere is so pure that the mountains a - watorworn granite bowlders of all sizes ! cross tho valley to the south seem but ten from that of a pigeon's egg up to that of a potash kettle; when the ravine widened a little, and tbo trail wound from side to side of the watercourse as chances for a foothold were proffered by one or tho oth er. The bottom of this ravine was poor ly timbered with Quaking Asp and Bal sam Fir, with some Service-Berry, Choke Cherry, Mountain Currant, and other bush es; tho whole ascept is four miles.not very steep except for the last half mile; but tho trail is so bad that is is a good two a good hours' work to reach the summit. But, ?i 1 1 1 tect chaos or wild, barren peaks, some ot them snowy, between which we have a glance at a part of the Salt Lake Valley, some thirty miles distant, though the City much nearer, is hidden by intervening bights, and the Lake is likewise conceal ed further to tho right. The descent toward the Valley is steeper and shorter than the ascent from the side of Bear Hiver the first half mile so fearfully etcep that I judge few passengers ever rode down it, though carriage-wheels are uniformly cbainod here. But, though the southern face of these mountains is cov ered by a far more luxuriant shrubbery than the northern, among which Oaks and Maples soon make their appearance for the firJt time in many weary hundred miles, none of these ever seem to grow into trees; in fact, I saw none over 6ix feet high. Some Quaking Asps, from ten to twenty-five feet high, the largest hardly more than six inches through, cov er patches of these precipitous mountain- sides, down which and over tervening mountain they are the low m- toilsomely dragged fh teen or twenty miles to serve as fuel in this city, where even such poor The descent of the mountain on this side is but two miles in length, with the Mail Company's station at the bottoln. Here (13 mifes from the city, 27 from Bear River) we had espected to stop for the night, but our new conductor, seeing that there was still two or three hours of good day light, resolved to come on. 00, with fresh teams, wo soon crossed the "little mountain" steep, but hardly a mile in ascent and half a milo in immedi ate descent and ran rapidly down so mo ten 'miles through tbo narrow ravine known as "Emigration Canon," where the road, though much traversed by Mormons as well as emigrants and merohant trains, is utterly abominable; and, passing over but two or three miles of intervening plain, were in this city just as twilight was deepening into night. Salt Lake City wears a pleasant as pect to the emigrant or traveler, weary, dusty, and browned with a thousand miles of jolting, fording, camping, through the scorched and naked American Desert. (eight rods) and the "magnifioent dittan ces" usually preserved by tho buildings (each block contining ten aores, divided into eight lots, giving a quarter of an a cre for buildings and an acre for garden, fruit, &c, to each householder,) make up an ensemble seldom equalled. Then the rills of bright sparkling, leaping water which, diverted from the streams issuing from soveral adjacent mountain oanons, flow through each street and aro conduc ted at will into every garden, diffuse an air of fresbnoss and none can fail to en joy, but whioh only a traveler in Sum mer across tho Plains can fully appreci- ate. Un a single business street, mo Post-Office, principal store, &o., aro set pretty near each other, though not so eloaeas in other cities; everywhere else I believe, the original plan of the city has been wisely and happily preserved. Booth- ward from toe city, the soil is sotler and richer, and there aro farms of (I judge) i"Qi told ley, ten to forty or sixty acres, but -I am that the lowest portion of - the valley nearly on a level with the lake, is so im- those of California west of the Sierra Ne pregnated with salt, soda, &c, as to yield vada. The head of this magnificent col but a grudging return for the husband- umn will enter the valley of the Sacra man's labor. I believe, however, that e- mento early in August: its extreme rear it, J here- in winter as well as summer, and: said to do well in all seasons. For, tho' ' i a r i . i - jouuw is uever aoseut irom me mouumiu- ichains which shut in this valley, it seldom j lies long in the valley itself. The pass over the Wahsatcb is, if I 'mistake not, o,3UU feet above tbo sea-lev- 'or fifteen miles off; they are really from twenty to tnirty. The lake issometwen- ty miles westward; but we see only the rugged mountain known as "Antelope Isl - and" which rises in its center, and seems to bound the valley in that direction. But both the Lake and valley wind away, to the north-west for a distance of some ninety miles the Lake receiving tbo wa-1 From the South Pass this way for more ters of Weber and Bear Rivers behind J than a hundred miles, feed is even scar tbe mountaius in that direction. And ' ccr than on tho other bide: but here the then there are other valleys like this, ' travel is divided. A glance at the map nested among the mountains south and I I. n. west to the verv bases of the Sierra Ne - vada. So there will be room enough .... 0 - r--t..- years. But of the Mormons and Mormonism. I propose to speak only after studying ' them; to which end I remain here for sev eral days longer. XX. THE EMIGRATION. Salt Lake City, July 12, 1859. The cry of "Gold at Pike's Peak," founded on glowing though very slenderly-based letters written from Denver and its vicinity last Autumn and Winter, eag erly and widely circulated through the Western journals, and fairly crazed a good portion of tho Missouri and upper Mississippi valleys by the opening of last Spring. The people of the old States have no adequate idea of the extent and force of this mania. I estimate the num ber who started for Pike's Peak during February and the threo following months of this year at nearer One Hundred Thousand than Fifty Thousand in fact, bardly short of the larger number. To this goldseeking cursade, all the Slave States except Missouri contributed less than one thousand persons; all the Free States east of the Ohio, hardly five hun dred. There were a few from Western Pennsylvania, and a handful from Ken tucky; while the great mass were from tho very richest States and Territories of the West, in about this proportion: Illinois Iowa Missouri Wisconsin Michigan 15,000 10,000 10,000 8,000 7,000 Indiana Ohio Kansas Nebraska Minnesota 5.000 5.000 5,000 5,000 2,000 Allothci States perhaps 3,000 J Total, say 72,000 Of this number, perhaps tho odd Two Thousand were women and children; the residue men, mainly, athletic, energetic, and in the prime of life. How their dreams of sudden wealth were rudely dispelled, and the great body of them turned back on the road homeward, with out having been within hundreds of miles of any possible Gold Mines, is already known. I estimate tho number now in or about the Kansas G old Region at bare ly Fifteen Thousand, and they aro quite enough. Unless discoveries and develop ments have been made faster than was to be reasonably expected when I left that region three weeks ago, not even this re duced number can find employment and subsistance thero through the long Win ter impending. Mining. is a business which will not be hurried; if the Rocky Mountain Gold Region should ultimately provo as ncn anu 1 -i facile as either Cahfor- nil nf Alic tnrlin in its liner, nsratn if. tvnulil here for an this alranfe neonle lor manviiue still be impossible to set One Hundred if ora?d to alkaline water so far ft shun mi j - c.t,i :!mer it. acouire a taste for it which they it in less than two years; "Pik c'a r 1.--: i posed) "gone "up," tho great majority of tho eold-seekers set their faces toward home, while a. considerable number re turnee! only to civilized Kansas and took up "olaims"thcre. But a considerable proportion, having started for gold, were determined to have gold, or at least to go further in quest of it. So meetiug the! Region; it wa manifest in some of tho wild rush of disappointed Pike's Peakersjold Buffalo, wallows and other dry water- aown ino i iuue, luuy tuii i l ii: -i i .. . ... courso and steered for California, whither nnnc;,.i,ln rotmn Jmnnllnd hv ! "FTnrrt Timn" in Mm Wast, was alreadvlto proceeding. Swelled by these deflected f Pike's Poakers, I estimate the total num- Knr rnvo nta flifl rnnd tn llalifnrnia at bout Thirty Thounaud persons, with , 17 Creek, tho oouth riatte,-cY.c, are iruo e n m.,u TT.aD .wi ion'f mm it. there were signs of its preseuce " Cattle amounting at tho start to little less j in the dry pood-beds north of the Cache- Vain the entreaty-idle the expostula .t. n tt...i",j a. uonA Of, la-Pondre. But on the North Platte, tion idle, or, at all events, too late.-r- IUUU UUli UUUUicu j-uuuounv. -. w I these, nioro than half (are or wore) Work ing Oxen. It was about tho lEt of Juno when thojfj vanguard of this long array appeared in tbo South Pass, then considerably en cumbered with snow; and it is now of courso considerably west ot this otiy. Its rear, on the other nana was . , of Laramie when 1 leit tt can hardly yet have passed it. The Em- igration, therefore, covers tho great tra. for an extent or more man oeyen nun- urea mues u. iuiut& ior-uui' was- mu!,u r i - a 1 j Eight Hundred-or fully half the dis- or six inches deep. Our d liiwr assure d 'tance from tho settlements" of Kansas-toe that 'it made as good bread as any. 1 t t i-: 1. f . ua f ion; So far as Platte Bridge, 125 miles this , side of Laramie, the Emigration is divid- .1 L. 11.. Ill .1 1 XT . 1 TH - -- eu vy cue x mile anu isorin riaite a- bout one-third, I judge, keeping north of those rivers, where tho best grass and water are iound, and where the lo3s of cattle is consequently mucb less than on the south side. From Platto Bridge to 1 the South Pass a distance of nearly 150 ! miles all tho emigration and travel to Utah, California, and Oregou pass over common irau, ana tor most oi tnc way the deficiency of grass was already fear- ! ful when I traversed that section ten days ago. What must it be, then, after thrco . weeks more of scorching sunshine, and the daily passage of hundreds, if not (thousands, of hungry cattle? will show this city far south of a direct 'ime even to Jrlaccrville, mucb more of a due course to the Feather, Yuba, or even III .T . . American. Nor is this route less rugged, probably, on the whole, than one or two others, considering the rough mountain passages between this city and Bridger. All tho little emigration to Oregon leaves the great trail on Col Lan der's new road that strikes off on the oth er side of the South Pass, and wbile many more of the California bound, sick of tho deficient forage and the infrequent water on the Salt Lake route, strike off more notherly at various points, expect ing to find more grass if higher moun tains and a rougher road by the fainter trails they severally take to reach the Land of Gold. Some of them will prob ably pay for their temerity by the loss of their cattle if not also of their lives, but this diverson will save many who could not otherwise have gone through on the bare trail through the deserts westward of this point which tho Emigration al ready in advance will certainly have left. Many cattle will die any how, but I think considerably fewer than if all had taken this single route. This terrible waste and destruction of animal life, which everywhere forces it self on the traveler's attention, is one of the most repulsive features of a journey across the Plains. From Laramie Bridge (and, I am assured, for a long distance east of it) to this city, the way is lined with carcases mainly of dead oxen. You can scarcely cast jour eyes abroad with out seeing one such; while three, four, and even six, are often visible at once. I 'know that some of these havo lain in this !dry, pure atmosphere for a year or more; still, the mortality of this season has been fearful, and is daily increasing as grass fails, cattle tire out, and a larger number of the emigrants reach the more destitute and dangerous portion of tho way. I was bardly half-way over when I heard (at the South Pass) of one party which, having started with a loadod wag on drawn by eight oxen, had lost every ox but Qne, which they sold, and, taking what they could carry on their backs, started to make their way on foot to and across the Sierra Nevada-. This is, of course, an uncommon'casej but overy day for more than a month has seen its hun dreds, of cattle on the long journey lie down to ripe no more, aud every day henceforth till Octabcr will see that num ber largely increased. Hunger, th'rst, weariness, over-driving, abuse, each and all claim their victims; but what is vague ly called Alkali water is nioro destruc tive than them ail. Hence, I judgo that loose cattle suffer more than those yoked and drawing wagons, because less under control with regard to the water they drink. I am told here that cattle accua- "gerlj gratify; but thoy generally choose that so weau mac it may do uruuis. wuu- that so weak that it may "be out causing death. This alkalino infection, corruption, or whatever it may be called, of a region large enough for a kingdom, is most re markable. I heard it complained of be fore we struck tho Republican, some three hundred miles oast of the Denver 'Gold .j . -. m no n thnr. rninn i nnnru duuii a uia h"--i . r , that tho grass ot tho bottoms tnereaoouts because of the alkali, scoured and failed nurish tho cattle fod on it: I saw tho dry bed of . Sand (or Sandy) Creek, a northern tributary of the Arkansas white with it lor many roas; anu, wiougu uuur- . r - . . ,. 0 e - - ... . .... ... and especially tho south siue 01 11, ou xno miguty numan uue now rumu wesu which the mail runs and most of the Emi- J ward will not pause at my bidding will gration travels, poisonous mineral water bo stayed ouly by tho fiat of the Al is a constant source of disquiet if not dan- mighty. In its paths mountain-ebaina a .1 . cfvttA l. .. t K ! 1 1 1 .1 lAtn1M i nn?a Vitir villa gen anu. WneD lue XMuue 10 iu aoross to the Sweetwater, ot the litti wa ter to bo found on that route of thirty ,lr1 miloa tho. nrnater nart is bad. Just - ;r"i,nd at Indo-! WlT pendenco Rock, we pass 030 bede a small la tirely white with a mineral substance said ..jr "LT " " , . n n nn nnrn rsu.1 iiuiuiui. aim p " - Sal iEratus," which. I, then sick from oating bread poisoned by that" detested miueral, was quite willing to tako hi word for. IJow sensible people who. sec their cattle dying daily of this poison can mix it with their food, and oven give it to their innocent children, is more than 1 comprehend i Seventy miles farther on, the Sweet- . k . 1 .1 I .J .... water muisus a souiuem eiuow, auu vm road (I believe there is a better which keeps south of the stream) rises over the hills on the north and keeps away for more tnan twenty miles. i?or a gooc part of this distance, there is little grass and less water; but at last we descend the hills to the vicinity of a small lake, full of water at all seasons, and sur rounded by fair grass. But the admon ished teamster hurries on his fainting : beasts, hardly suffering them to look at j the alluring panorama; for that lake is a fountain of death, and the adjacent grass is only less pestilent. Evn tho traveler, unencumbered with the care of stock, has his attention arrested by the facts that that grass stands uneaten though hun , dreds of hungry cattle pass it daily, and that no track leads down to those bright ly shimmering waters. A cross weary hundreds of miles f such country, where sterility is aggrava ted by constant peril, the long colnm of the California Emigration is now slowly toiling, and mut be for anxious months yet to como. Their eyes often bandaged or goggled as they best may be to shield them from the eternal glare of these hot Summer days on this shadeless, glisten ing plain, the teamsters move as listless ly as their patient, hollow, drooping oxen, in whose eyes meekness and misery alike find expression. As the mail-wagon, drawn by six mules with one by their side ridden by a whipper-up, whirls by them in a cloud of dust, flounders over the Sagebush where the track is narrow, or darts from this to that side of the long train in order to wind its way as rapidly as may be from the rear to the front, I catch a glimpse of sunbrowncd wives and flaxen-haired children nestling in some of the great wagons or wearily plodding a long in front (all the women on this great highway have the good sense to prefer the Bloomer dress, and the courage to brave the fool's laugh, in obedience to the dictates of convenience and comfort); I see them in their evening camps, with: the little sheeliron stove taken down from behind the wagon and filled with stioks, or, at the worst, with Sagebush, and the prepcration of the evening meal going busily and tidily forward; I rejoice to note that the emigrants generally fare better than we rapid travellers can car rying with them a hundred little contri butions to comfort which cannot reasona bly be looked for in rudo mail stations in a vast and desert wilderness; I see that, in everything but the duration of the journey, these moving iamucs, wun many of their household gods around them, have the advantage of us jerked and jolted tsa gcrs, who are often toiling by their white tents and smoldering fires long after the j are buried in deep, refreshing slumber; and yet, as I glance at their worn, anx ious faces (for nothing but the Raven is really jolly throughout this land of silence and death, and he is so gorged and stu pefied that he can scarcely rise from his putrid feast when our mules seem about to run over him.) I am sorely tempted to cry out, "Why O countrymen and womenl this long march through a region so de structive and inhospitable! Was there no room, no chance, to die in your far Eastern homes! Grant that you should all at length reach safely the Italy of our continent, what can it proffer to compen sate you for the sacrifices, the anxieties, tho privations, the sufferings of this long' journoy! Do you not realize that there, as everywhere else, care, and toil, and disappointment, and struggle, and be reavement, make up the wisely appointed earthly lot of man! Do you not know that thousands in California aro discon tented and restless as you ever were! Nay, yon mast know it; for some of you are every day meotingt hem on their way to the Atlantic States, .and must note that tbey are, in the averager palpably poorer and leas amply provided than yourselves. Do you not realize that the States you havo last left embody tho most fertile and init?ng portion of our 'planet that1 to winch many times your nuaber are fond ly looking or eagerly pressing from eve ry part of the civilized world! Why, , . imu. uv i - - j - - ,!,. v.j u j -7 i and low prices, and pecuniary embarras- mcnts, and all that make up what are called IIard Times,' are peculiar to your late homes! - Do you not know thatyoa will find these, or their equivalents, in California or Oregon as well I Pause, I pray you, and Considerl" ,. . , :. , Mi 1. uru uuu uutuueta, ivuyijr mei v "."- and deserts rather stimulants to its eor- ao than serious impedimenta to its'pfa- gress. Remonstrance is btat waste or breath-it will not bo arrested short o arrested short of Let e, tkere- e M of a beni BaBt. fcoBgfc inscrutable Providence in "this -igklj lnoycment. aD(j reat in faith and hope. movement, , , 1 ess on sternly, ei then, countrymenli ftrly,- even though- .wearily, aaxiously
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