UTAH, a territory of the United States of North America, lying betweeu 87° and 42° N. lat., 106° and 120° 1V. long. It is bounded S. and S.E. by the territory of New Mexico ; E. by the territories of Kansas and Nebraska ; N. by that of Oregon ; and W. and S.W. by the state of California. The area of Utah is estimated by the Topo graphical Bureau of the United State.' at 269,170 square miles. The population iu 1850 was 11,380 (of whom 24 were free coloured persons, and 26 slavee en route to California), or to the square mile : but this does not include the native Indiau population, who were estimated by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1853 at 11,500.
Surface, Hydrography, &e.—The territory of Utah occupies for the most part a vast broken depression, known as the Great Basin, which lies between the ROCKY MOUNTAINS on the east and the Sierra Nevada [CALIFORNIA] on tho west ; these lofty mouutains rising iu parts above the line of perpetual snow, while across them are only a few difficult passes. On the north of the Great Basin there is no con tinuous mountain chain, the watershed being formed by nu elevated tract, which is sometimes a swamp. On the south-east the rocky barrier is broken through by the head etreams of the Colorado, the only river which finds its way out of the Great Basin ; all the others which flow into the basin from the slopes of the mouutains being lost in the plains or iu the lakes which occupy the bottoms of the larger valleys. The Great Basin is about 500 miles long, from east to west, and little less wide, and some 4000 feet above the level of the sea. Parallel to the main ranges of the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains are several inferior ranges, of which the Wahsatch Mountains on the east are the most important. Some of these secondary chains attaia an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet ; and from these diverge cross ridges, which form lesser valleys. A large portion of the Great Basin coueiste of arid plains, ou which artemesias and salicoruias are almost the only plants, but in many parts these plains are so impregnated with salt as to be unfit to sustain vegetable life. The most remarkable features of thie singular country are the great valleys. Of these by far the largest is the Great Salt Lake Valley, which is about 120 miles long and from 20 to 40 miles wide, the Great Salt Lake occupying the greater part of the northern tion of it. In the centre of this valley the surface is level, but it rises gently on both sides to the mountains. There are few or no
trees visible. On the south and west of the Great Salt Lake the land is a soft sandy irreclaimable barren, on the north it is a swamp, on the east and south-east, where is the Great Mormon settlement, it is fertile and cultivated from the mountains to the shore. The climate of the valley is dry and mild ; but rain add= falls during the summer mouths, so that the agriculturist is to a great extent depend ent on irrigation. The other valleys bear a general resemblance to Salt Lake Valley, but they are much smaller. The chief are—Utah Valley, about 60 miles long by 20 miles wide ; Saud Pitch Valley, 45 miles long by 20 miles broad; Bear River Valley, South Valley, Yuab Valley, Cache Valley, and Sevier Valley. Of that portion of the territory whieli does not strictly belong to the Great Basin, the Valley of Green River with its tributaries, which temples thu easteru portion of the territory from the Sierra Madre to the Bear River Mountains, is the most extensive, being more than 150 miles long; but it is so elevated and so badly watered that it is thought not to contain a single spot available for agricultural purposes. The little valley of the Uintah River, a more southern tributary of the Colorado, is much warmer and more promising. But all this eastern part of the country is, with this exception, barren.
Utah possesses no great navigable rivers. The Colorado, as already mentioned, is the only river which flows out of the Great Basin, and it is a stream of little consequence till it has flowed some distance along the territory of New Mexico. There are indeed accumulated in tho gorges of the mountains unfailing stores of snow, which furnish daring the whole of the summer abundant and perennial streams, which in some instances possess a considerable volume of water; but many of these never reach the bases of the mountains, and the great majority are lost in the arid plains. A few find their way to the lakes, but from the lakes, except from one to another, there is no out let. Some of the streams which connect the lakes are however of considerable value for irrigation, and may become of essential impel.. tance for manufacturing purposes. The most valuable of these rivers is the Jordan, a rapid stream which unites the Great Salt Lake with Lake Utah; it is on this river that Salt Lake City is built, and already several manufactories are established along its banks.