able part; it is called to-day the Great American Basin, and it lies some 5,000 feet above sea-level. This basin is 560 miles in diameter; it has its own system of lakes and rivers, and has no apparent communication with the ocean. It is possible that gulfs may exist in the Great Salt lake, through which its waters discharge themselves into the Pacific, or it may communicate with other lakes in the regions of Lower California. The Great Salt lake, which is about 300 miles in circumference, lies in the northern part of the Great basin. It is rather shallow in the portions thus far explored; but is supposed to be very deep in the central parts. The water of the lake is more salty than sea-water. Three gallons of it yield a gallon of salt of the greatest
purity, whiteness and fineness. On the northeast of the lake
is the termination of the valley of Bear river. This valley is thirty miles long by twenty-two wide, and communicates with another valley which is fifty miles by eight.' It is in this first valley, inclosed by picturesque mountains, which has taken the name of the Valley of the Mormons, that their capital stands, called by some Great Salt Lake City,
and by others Mormonville. These two valleys contain the principal body of emigrants belonging to this sect (a species of socialism and communism), more than 30,000 in number. They are capable of supporting in time a population of over 1,000,000.
In the fall of 1846, as I drew near to the frontiers of the State of Missouri, I found the advance guard of the Mormons, numbering about Io,o00, camped in the territory of the Omahas, not far from the old Council Bluffs. They had just been driven out for the second time from a State of the Union (Illinois had received them after their war with the people of Missouri). They had resolved to winter on the threshold of the great desert, and then to move on
4 Cache Valley, one of the most beautiful of all the mountain valleys, and now occupied by a dense Mormon population with some thirteen flourishing villages which can all be seen at once from any vantage point in the surrounding hills.