lieved coal exists in sufficient quantities for all the purposes of civilization.

There are, in some localities, immense districts of country almost entirely destitute of wood and water. But what may be done by building artesian wells and opening the mines of coal, is among the mysteries of the future. No treacherous bodies of sand, like those of the great Sahara, are ready to bury the traveler from sight. Nor are the inclemencies of the weather usually very severe. By providing in advance supplies of water and food, one may travel in comparative comfort over the worst of these American deserts. After the fatigues of the day, he can lie down at night upon the dry earth, and, gazing into the clear heavens, amidst the beautiful stars, it will be difficult to realize that he is in an unfavored land.

The geology of this vast region affords material for the study of ages. The principal structure is porphyritic granite; but this is everywhere mixed with limestone, quartz, lava, basalt, sandstone, and every variety of earths and minerals. On the great Snake River Plain, comprising not less than ten thousand square miles, the whole surface of the earth consists of a layer of lava rocks, extending indefinitely downwards, and rising in many places in huge masses, thrown together in indescribable confusion. In most places they are laid as a floor, over which people may pass. The emigrant's wagon strikes upon the small irregularities of surface with a sharpness that would indicate passing over pieces of cast iron. This is the center of the great volcanic region, and exhibits the effects of subterranean action on a scale of the greatest magnitude.

Throughout this whole extent of country, as well as in the mountains which surround and sustain it, is a wealth of precious metals beyond anything the mind has yet imagined.

Such is the North American Plateau.

That portion of it belonging to the United States, excluding the Alaska purchase, lies entirely within the isothermal zodiac, between latitude 31 and 49 degrees, and comprising about a million square miles.

Within its area are the entire terri tories of Idaho, Utah and Arizona, the State of Nevada, the western part of Montana, of Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico, most of Washington Territory, the eastern half of Oregon, and a portion of California. It includes three of the Great Basins, the Columbia, the Salt Lake and the Colorado, and a portion of a fourth, the Rio Grande.

Confining ourselves to the Upper California or Salt Lake Basin, we find it bounded by Sierra Nevadas on the southwest, the Wasatch Range on the southeast, and on the north by the Snake River Mountains. These enclose it in the form of a shield, the point of which is formed by the junction of the Sierra Range with the Wasatch Mountains, to the south. This wonderful portion of country, thus entirely surrounded by great mountain ranges, was formerly all a portion of Utah Territory. At this time, the greater portion of it constitutes the State of Nevada.

Utah lies mostly within this basin, but partly, also, within the Basin of the Colorado. The Wasatch Mountains traverse its entire length, from north to south.

The distinctive feature of the Salt Lake Basin is the lake from which it derives its name. This is a body of intensely salt water, nearly a hundred miles in length, and forty to fifty in width. It is fed by many mountain streams from the north and east, and from the south by the Jordan River, which flows from Utah Lake. This is a body of fresh water situated forty miles to the south. The Salt Lake, with its valley, is 4,200 feet above the level of the sea. In the middle of the lake rise mountains two to three thousand feet in height.

The lake, with its mountainous islands the larger mountains rising in the distance on every hand, some of them covered with perpetual snowthe valley lying between, threaded by the silvery Jordan-all these, when viewed from any of the adjacent benches or mountain slopes, constitute a scene of wonderful sublimity and beauty, now mellowed and made cheerful by the habitations and improvements of man. This beautiful lake and valley must ever be a favorite resort for invalids, on account of the purity and tonic character of the atmosphere, and the exercise and excitement of such a journey. The Salt Lake is a most delightful place to bathe, especially for poor swimmers. One can no more sink, if he will keep his mouth shut, than can a chip. This has been disputed by Burton, the English traveler. But I can attest its 'truth; so can hundreds of others.

Salt Lake Basin has many other lakes and streams, valleys and mountains, among whose wild and romantic scenery we might dwell with pleasure; but I pass on to speak of its people.

The masses, in industry and native honesty, will compare favorably with an equal number taken from the lowest classes of society in any part of the world. But writers on public morals agree that the most virtue is found, not among the poorest nor the richest, but in the middle classes. The multitudes who have annually, for the last twenty years, flocked to the valley of Salt Lake, in quest of a modern Zion, have been gathered from the populous mining districts of England and Wales, and from the great cities of the British Isles and the continent.

A long and toilsome journey, performed under the regulations of strict discipline, fastens the spiritual chains, which, in their native land, had been skillfully thrown around them; and on their arrival in those mountain fastnesses, with half the circuit of the earth

between them and the country they have abandoned, their servitude is complete. Here they are taught to expect their adopted land, Utah, not America, to become the great country of the world. Its people are to become the nation of nations, established by Jehovah, unto whom all other peoples are to flow, and before whom, in some mysterious manner, by Divine agency, all earthly powers are to be broken in pieces, like the potter's vessels, till the Lord's House shall be triumphantly established "on the tops of the mountains," and all nations shall come up to worship and obey.

Such is the splendid vision calculated to intoxicate and bewilder brains stronger than theirs. While its influence is fresh upon them, they are initiated into a system of government at once social, civil, religious and political, entering into and controlling all the relations of life.

The

Much has been said of the Mormon system of government. secret of its power and efficacy lies not so much in the wisdom of its framework, nor in the judicious mode of administering it, as in the fact that its subjects have voluntarily surrendered their souls and bodies to its keeping. Claiming no form of liberty, insisting upon nothing, willing even to entrust the disposition of their worldly goods. to the priests, without requiring any accountability for the mode in which they may have been disposed of, could it be difficult to govern a people thus plastic in the hands of their rulers? The fashioning of the clay to the pot ter's vessels is the familiar illustration made use of to indicate the relations subsisting between the governed and the governing classes.

The first president enacts the laws, which are promulgated under the nominal sanction of his counsellors, and are carried into effect by the bishops, priests and teachers. These laws are claimed

to have emanated from Jehovah himself, and as such are received and obeyed without dispute or question. The government is a complete theocracy.

The Mormon theology is of the most incongruous character. All efforts to systematize their faith are frustrated by the rude and incoherent notions daily promulgated from the preacher's stand. The Pratts, Taylor, Orson Hyde, and others, have at different times endeavored to form a connected creed or system of belief, but it would be hard to specify any considerable number of doctrines to which all the leading men would subscribe. The doctrines are, moreover, liable to be changed by direct revelation. Implicit obedience to the priesthood in all things, temporal and spiritual, is the cardinal principle.

Polygamy was at first practiced secretly by the heads of the church. As it increased, the vail was gradually removed, and finally Young conceived the project of establishing it as a church institution. He at once received a revelation to that effect. On the 29th day of August, 1852, this revelation was announced to the people by Elder Orson Pratt, who, on the same day, preached a discourse explaining and enforcing the doctrine. From that time it has been claimed by them as a part of their religion. Though nominally open to all who, by superior piety, deserve its blessings, few except the priests and bishops practice it, because they only can afford the expense of a polygamic establishment.

Polygamy was no part of the original Mormon religion, being expressly condemned by the Book of Mormon, and by the Book of Doctrines and Covenants, these books corresponding to the Old and New Testament Scriptures of the Christian religion.

Politically considered, the Utah question has been one of great difficulty. The problem has been to enforce the laws and establish the institutions of the United States, without violating the principles of civil and religious liberty. The danger and incompatibility of permitting a theocracy to be established in the midst of a republic, is conceded. But we have hesitated about infringing upon the right of trial by jury, even in a territory; and it is well understood that there juries are entirely subservient to the theocratic power, which rules the community.

In view of the past relations between the general government and the religious leaders in Utah, perhaps justice as well as a comprehensive liberality would require that the United States should offer to pay the Mormons the value of all their improvements, and give them the option the country. In case of refusal, let a strong military government be established.

Congress has hesitated between the different policies recommended, while all classes of people have been looking to the Pacific Railroad to bring us in some way out of the difficulty..

That they will be disappointed in this expectation, I am constrained to believe. The completion of the road will doubtless precipitate a collision, which could only have been avoided in one of the ways suggested, or, at least, by the establishment in the immediate vicinity of a military force sufficient to prevent an outbreak.

When the question shall have been settled, when Utah shall have become Americanized, the Salt Lake Valley will be one of the most desirable places for settlement and residence within the limits of the United States.

THE

HE only rightful order of things seems to be from beginnings. From nothing to something-from seed to fruit from dust to immortality. Nature is the grand dispenser of compensations. She has a negative and positive pole for everything; always "abhors a vacuum," and braves thunder and storm to secure an equilibrium of forces, and to crown growth with splendors. Life is merely a condition of things- merely a stage of growth which the law of progress or culture commands.

From nothing to something. The best showing of this truth underlying heaven and earth is given us from the animal kingdom; and literature owes some of its most touching phrases to animals.

Take a week in mid-April. There is not a day of that time but you will be annoyed by the troubling caterpillars. About a month after that, everyone is glad to greet the butterfly, with its marvelous wings, floating from dandelion to dandelion. These creatures continue but a short time; they are truly children of the sun. Catch a butterfly, let it go again, and then look at the dust on your finger through a microscope. You will find each particle of dust a beautiful feather. The colors of the butterfly are due to the arrangement of these feathers. Rub the dust off entirely from a butterfly wing, then look at it through a microscope. It looks like a picked chicken; it is all perforated with little holes. One man found four hundred thousand of these holes on the wings of a little silkworm moth. The butterfly's life is of three or four week's duration. Then he goes about seeking

for some especial plant; for each specie of butterfly wants a plant of its own. By and by he finds his plant, and lights in, close to the stem. At length the creature lays eggs, and wax exudes at the same time to cement the eggs together. When the young caterpillar is born, the first thing he does is to eat up his house; after that he feeds on the glue round about the house or egg-shell, and eats through into the bark of the plant. From the moment he gets a taste of that, he is strong and a new creature. He goes on gormandizing until he gets his growth. He eats sixty thousand times his own weight in food in the course of a month. He grows so fast that he splits open; his skin is not large enough. A new and softer skin succeeds, to make him more comfortable. This process is gone through with four or five times. Its growth is now gained, and it stops eating forever. Now it crawls to the underside of a branch; it spins silk, and the silk is blown up by the wind-the very air -and sticks to the twig. It requires two and a half days to spin this cradling sack, and then it goes to sleep. After it has slept a few days it wakes up to do a little business. to cast off the caterpillar skin. And now it doesn't look like a caterpillar, but like a bean, This look it has spun is its chrysalis. It hangs there all winter, rocked by the winds or touched by snows or rainsno matter!

It sleeps about ten months. In the spring the skin of the chrysalis becomes thin, and fragile, and transparent; colors and spots begin to show through the transparency—a new head and body is seen through it. By and by the chrysalis