Of the numerous lakes which are in the territory the largest and most remarkable is the Great Salt Lake, which lies at the northern end of Great Salt Lako Valley. This lake is about 70 miles long, from 20 to 90 miles wide, and has a shore-lino of 291 miles. Its water is saturated with chloride of sodium (salt); Dr. Gale, who made an analysis of its water for the United States government, says that it contains fall 20 per cent. of pure chloride of sodium, and not more than 2 per cent- of other salts, and is one of the purest and most concentrated brioes in the world. The specifio gravity of the water is 1.170. Several picturesque islands rise to a great altitude above the surface of the lake. On the mountains on each side of the lake are several distinct terraces, exhibiting unmistakeable evidences of this valley having been at some time the bed of a great inland sea. The other lakes are much smaller than the Great Salt Lake ; the water of Lake Utah, which is connected with the Great Salt Lake by the river Jordan, is said to be quite fresh. It receives several streams from the mountains. In the neighbourhood of the Great Salt Lake, and in other parts of the territory, are several hot and sulphureous springs.
Geology, sEc.—Iletaniorphic, Silurian, and Carboniferous rocks prevail. In the neighbourhood of the Great Salt Lako rocks of granitio and sienitio character occur, with hornblende rocks, and talcose- and mica-schists. The more elevated portions of the lake shore and mountain summits appear to consist of carboniferous lime stone, which, in some localities, lose their granular character, and become sub-crystalline, or threaded with veins of calcareous spar. All the elevated ranges on the north, south, and west of the Great Salt Lake, seem to be capped with the carlioniferons limestone, which generally rests on a coarse granular sandstone. In some localities the sandstones are overlaid with a coarse conglomerate, which is sometimes partly altered so as to assume the character of a quartz rock. Cretaceous strata occur in several places ; and along the valleys are tertiary clays, &c. Good building-stono is quarried in the vicinity of Salt Lake City. Of the mineral wealth of Utah little is really known.
Soil, Climate, Productions, &c—A large proportion of the country is uninhabitable and unproductive, but that portion which is available for agricultural purposes, though limited In extent as compared with the Intervening desert tracts, is much of it of extreme fertility; and according to Captain Stansbury, who made a careful survey of the territory for the government of the United States, fully sufficient for the support of a large, though not dense, population. These fertile and habitable tracts are for the most part confined to the narrow strips of alluvial land along the bases of the mountains and the bottoms of the warmer and more sheltered valleys. Along the western foot of the Wahaatch range occurs one of the richest of these tract., a narrow slip only a mile or two wide, but etretching for more
than 300 miles in length. In the valley of the Jordan it is much wider ; and there are wider patches in several other of the valleys, as in those of the Tuilla, of the Tirnpougaa and others of the Traverse Range. In fact the most available part of tho Great Basin appears to consist of the valleys along its eastern border, sheltered by tho Wahsatch range. The most productive of tho cultivated soil. consist of disintegrated feldspathic, rocks, mixed with tho ddbris of the lime stones. There also occur in the valley bottoms very rich vegetable and ready beams. So productive are some of the soils that Captain Stansbury mentions an instance of a bushel of wheat producing on three acres and a half of land a yield of 180 bushels ; and other authorities speak of 50 or 60 bushels of wheat to the acre as being by no means unusual, but there can, we think, be no doubt that such must be exceptional cases.
In the valleys the climate is milder and drier than in the same parallel of latitude on the Atlantic, and tho winters are much more temperate ; in the Salt Lake Valley the thermometer seldom descends to zero. But on the higher arid plains the heat is often oppressive. Over these plains the mirage is frequently observed in the warm season. The eastern section of the country is cold. Throughout the habitable portions of the territory rain seldom falls between May and October, and can never be relied on for agricultural purposes. Artificial irri gation is therefore requisite to agricultural success; but the character of the country happily admits of irrigation being effected with com parative ease in the more fertile valleys, although there are extensive tracts of land which will not admit of cultivation on account of their being beyond the application of irrigation.
The principal cereals grown are wheat, oats, maize, barley, and rye. Very little buckwheat is raised. The common potatoes grow luxu riantly; of sweet potatoes the crops are limited. All the vegetables peculiar to the middle nod western states succeed here. The sugar beet grows to a Large size, and is being raised, though not largely, for making sugar. Cotton, the sugar-cane and rice will, it is said, grow in some districts, but they are not suited to the climate. Tobacco and flax are raised in small quantities. A portion of the territory is well adapted for grazing, though the bunch grass on tho lower elopes of the mountains, which at present feeds vast herds of antelopes and deer, is burnt up during the summer mouths. Horsea are the animals of which the inhabitants perhaps possess the largest proportionate number; but they have a considerable number of cattle, and there is a growing attention being paid to sheep, which are in great request for their wool.