LITMIR.BIZ

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a narrative intimately connected with the early history of this city. He says: "Upon my arrival at Salt Lake City, I found that the camp, under Lieutenant Gunnison, was then about sixty miles to the southward, upon Utah Lake. I accordingly joined him as soon as possible. The work, during my absence, had been carried forward by that officer with energy, industry and judgment.

      "I had hoped, from the representations which had been made to me of the mildness of the two previous winters, that we should be able to keep the field the greater part, if not the whole of the season; but, in the latter part of November, the winter set in with great and unusual severity, accompanied by deep snows, which rendered any farther prosecution of the work impracticable. I was therefore compelled to break up my camp, and to seek for winter quarters in the city.

      These were not obtained without some difficulty, as the tide of emigration had been so great that houses were very scarce, and not a small portion of the inhabitants, among whom was the president himself, were forced to lodge portions of their families in wagons.

      "Upon terminating the field-work for the season, I dispatched three men, one of whom was my guide and interpreter, with a small invoice of goods, to trade for horses among the Uintah Utahs, with directions to await my orders at Fort Bridger. Reports afterward reached us that a bloody fight had taken place between the Sioux and the Yampah Utahs, which latter tribe reside in the vicinity of the Uintahs, and great fears were entertained that the little party had been cut off by one or the other of the contending tribes. Such a calamity, aside from the loss of life, would have been of serious consequence to the expedition, as the horses I expected to obtain were almost indispensable to the return of the party to the States, the number of our animals having been much diminished by death and robbery.

      "It may as well be mentioned here, that the party thus dispatched subsequently joined me in the spring, as soon as the melting of the snows rendered communication with Fort Bridger practicable, bringing with them a drove of twenty-five horses. They had met with very rough usage from the Indians, having been robbed of a number of their horses, besides the whole of what remained of their goods and narrowly escaped with their lives.

      "From the report by Lieutenant Gunnison of his operations during my absence, I make the following synopsis.

      "A thorough exploration was made, with the view of ascertaining the points for such a base line as would best develop a system of triangles embracing both the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys.

      "A line was selected, and carefully measured by rods constructed for the purpose, and tripod stations erected over the termini, which were marked by metal points set in wooden posts sunk flush with the surface of the ground. The length of the base is thirty-one thousand six hundred and eighty feet.

      "Fourteen principal triangulation stations were erected, consisting of large pyramidal timber tripods, strongly framed, to be covered, when required for use, by cotton cloth of different colors, according to the background. The triangles extended to the south shore of Utah Lake, and embraced an area of about eighty by twenty-five miles.

      "A survey and sounding had been made of the Utah Lake, and also of the river connecting it with Salt Lake: this operation requiring a line to be run of one hundred and twenty-six miles, principally by the back angle, with the theodolite.

      "Although such a result, from less than two months' labor, would be entirely satisfactory under ordinary circumstances anywhere, and would reflect credit on the energy and capacity of the officer in charge of the work, yet it may be remarked that it would be very unfair to judge of it by a comparison with similar results obtained in the Eastern States. There, all the accessories to such a work, especially water and timber, are abundant, and generally at a convenient distance: here, on the contrary, both are very scarce and hard to be obtained.

      All the water, for instance, used both for cooking and drinking, that was consumed on the base line, (requiring seven days of incessant labor in its measurement,) had to be transported upon mules from the river, which lay a mile east of its eastern terminus; and the force employed in the erection of most of the triangulation stations had to be supplied in a like manner. But the principal difficulty was the scarcity of timber. Wood grows nowhere on the plains; all the wood used for cooking in camp, and all the timber, both for posts on the base line and for the construction of the stations, had to be hauled from the mountains in many cases fifteen or twenty miles distant, over a rough country without roads. Almost every stick used for this purpose cost from twenty to thirty miles travel of a six-mule team. This, together with the delays of getting into the canyons, where alone the timber can be procured, cutting down the trees, and hauling them down the gorges by hand to the nearest spots accessible to the teams, involved an amount of time and labor which must be experienced before it can be appreciated. All this had to be done, however, or the prosecution of the work would have been impracticable.

      "Before leaving the Salt Like City for Fort Hall, I had engaged the services of Albert Carrington, Esq., a member of the Mormon community, who was to act as an assistant on the survey. He was without experience in the use of instruments; but, being a gentleman of liberal education, he soon acquired, under instruction, the requisite skill, and, by his zeal, industry, and practical good sense, materially aided us in our subsequent operations. He continued with the party until the termination of the survey, accompanied it to this city, [Washington] and has since returned to his mountain home, carrying with him the respect and kind wishes of all with whom he was associated.

      "The winter season in the valley was long and severe. The vicinity of so many high mountains rendered the weather extremely variable; snows fell constantly upon them, and frequently to the depth of ten inches in the plains. In many of the canyons it accumulated to the depth of fifty feet, filling up the passes so rapidly that, in more than one instance, emigrants who had been belated in starting from the States, were overtaken by the storms in the mountain gorges, and forced to abandon everything, and escape on loot, leaving even their animals to perish in the snows. All communication with the world beyond was thus effectually cut off; and, as the winter advanced, the gorges became more and more impassable, owing to the drifting of the snow into them from the projecting peaks.

      "We remained thus shut up until the 3rd of April. Our quarters consisted of a small unfurnished house of unburnt brick or adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on, which, every time it stormed, admitted so much water as called into requisition all the pans and buckets in the establishment to receive the numerous little streams which came trickling down from every crack and knot-hole. During this season of comparative inaction, we received from the authorities and citizens of the community every kindness that the most warmhearted hospitality could dictate: and no effort was spared to render us comfortable as their own limited means would admit. Indeed, we were much better lodged than many of our neighbors; for, as has been previously observed, very many families were obliged still to lodge wholly or in part in their wagons, which, being covered, served, when taken off from the wheels and set upon the ground, to make bedrooms, of limited dimensions it is true, but yet exceedingly comfortable. Many of these were comparatively large and commodious, and, when carpeted and furnished with a little stove, formed an additional apartment or back building to the small cabin, with which they frequently communicated by a door.

      It certainly argued a high tone of morals and a habitual observance of good order and decorum, to find women and children thus securely slumbering in the midst of a large city, with no protection from midnight molestation other than a wagon cover of linen and the regis of the law. In the very next enclosure to that occupied by our party, a whole family of children had no other shelter than one of these wagons, where they slept all the winter, literally out of doors, there being no communication whatever with the inside of their parents' house."

      Stansbury's report to the Government also supplies the initial pages of the Indian history of Utah. He says:

      "The native tribes with whom we came in contact in the valley were the most degraded and lowest in the scale of being of any I had ever seen. They consisted of the ' root-diggers,' a class of Indians which seemed to be composed of outcasts from their respective tribes, subsisting chiefly upon roots dug from the ground, and the seeds of various plants indigenous to the soil, which they grind into a kind of flour between two flat stones. Lizards and crickets also form a portion

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