METHODIST

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1882.

ART. I.-UTAH AND THE MORMON PROBLEM.

Mormonism Unveiled; or, The Life and Confessions of John D. Lee. By W. W. BISHOP. Saint Louis, Mo.: Bryan, Brand & Co. 1877.

The Fate of Madame La Tour: A Story of Great Salt Lake. By Mrs. A. G. PADDOCK. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. 1881.

The Utah Review. Rev. THEOPHILUS B. HILTON, A.M., Editor. Salt Lake City, August, 1881.

THE Territory of Utah seems likely to attract a more than ordinary amount of attention in the near future. And this not on account of intrinsic importance alone, but because the body politic, like other bodies, is sensitive to the existence of a sore spot; and, whether anxious or not to take pride in the exhibition of a diseased member, still feels keen interest in a subject that cannot be touched without pain nor let alone without danger. Hesitation and delay may long continue, but reluctance at last yields to necessity, and canker and gangrene finally gain the sufferer's attention. Then follows the earnest search for efficient remedies and speedy relief.

As the scene of fierce conflict between a transplanted Oriental barbarism and Christian civilization, and the ground on which is to be wrought out one of our most difficult and troublesome problems, this region of mountain and desert becomes the center of an absorbing interest to our whole country.

THE TERRITORY AND ITS RESOURCES.

Utah owes its name to one of the native Indian tribes, the Yutahs, ("dwellers in the mountains,") who, with kindred FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXIV.—14

families, the Utes, Pi-utes, and others, from time immemorial held possession of its plains and rocky fastnesses until the advent of the white man less than half a century ago. Originally the Territory embraced a much larger region than now: it extended east and west from the Rockies to the Sierras, and north and south almost indefinitely, until, in process of time and through the rapid development of mineral resources, the "Silver State" was carved out bodily from the western half. Colorado took something from the eastern border, Wyoming absorbed a square corner in the north-east, while, on the north and south, Idaho and Arizona assisted in circumscribing the Territory to very reasonable limits. It now occupies five degrees each of north latitude and west longitude, lying between parallels 37 and 42, and meridians 109 and 114, west of the Missouri River 1,000 miles, east of the Pacific Ocean 800. Its general length from north to south is 350 miles, its breadth east and west 260 miles. With an area of 84,476 square miles, it compares, as to size, very favorably with adjacent States and Territories. Lying in the very midst of our great western domain, and surrounded by regions of untold mineral and other wealth, Utah promises to become more and more a center of the greatest business activity.

Extending north and south through almost the entire length of the Territory, like a huge spine, is the Wahsatch range of mountains, some of whose summits rise 13,000 feet above the sea-level, and are clad with perpetual snows. The precipitous sides of these bold heights are here and there furrowed and broken by deep cañons and rugged passes, down which rush impetuous torrents pouring their ever-cold waters on the plains below. Eastward and westward of this central chain extend rugged spurs, among which are found level basins and narrow valleys of great natural fertility, whose meadows furnish abundance of succulent food for domestic animals, or under ordinary tillage can be made to yield man a comfortable subsistence.

This range of mountains also divides the Territory into two distinct sections, whose waters, though springing from the same heights, find destinations extremely different. On the east the Green and Grand Rivers, with their numerous tributaries, combine in the Colorado, which, after a tortuous course of 500 miles down a narrow cañon, whose vertical and almost

unbroken walls are 1,200 feet or more in depth, and through shifting sands for many miles in its lower extent, at last finds outlet in the Gulf of California. In the extreme south-west of the Territory the Wahsatch Mountains sweep around in an immense semicircle toward the Sierra Nevadas, forming the great interior basin of America, in elevation from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea-level, and in its vast area including nearly all of Nevada and the western half of Utah. Within this basin, and in the north-western corner of the Territory, is Great Salt Lake, 75 miles in length, 30 in width, and 4,200 feet above the sea. Its waters sink; or, rather, replenished perpetually by the Bear and Jordan Rivers and other streams, they are ever evaporating and leaving behind their heavy deposits of salt. In those transparent waters, so buoyant that the human body will not sink in them, there exists in solution 22 per cent. of this valuable mineral, withal making enough brine to preserve the pork of the nation. Neither fish nor vegetable can live in those saline depths, though both abound in the tributary mountain streams. Into this lake are for the most part finally gathered the streams of the western. section of Utah, almost the only exception being the Sevier River far toward the south, and the waters of this sluggish stream finally sink in a lake of the same name.

To the southward of this American Dead Sea, some 35 miles, lies the beautiful Utah Lake, a body of fresh water 35 miles in length, finding outlet into Great Salt Lake through the Jordan River. Skirting the eastern border of the last-named lake, at the base of the Wahsatch range, and extending southward considerably beyond Utah Lake, is the most beautiful section of the whole Territory. It varies in width from one mile to thirty or more along the lakes, appearing as a broad expanse of meadows and green fields, with here and there orchards and thriving villages, but in places beside the Jordan narrowing down to a fruitful vale between overshadowing hills. These lands are exceedingly productive; all the ordinary grains, fruits, and vegetables are grown in abundance, albeit irrigation is in places required to perfect these harvests.

Along the Rio Virgin, in the extreme south, there is also a belt of fertile soil, where, in addition to the products named above, considerable quantities of cotton and sugar cane are