All the people of the smaller towns are agriculturists. In none of them
is there a single shop. In Provo there are several small manufacturing
establishments, for which the abundant water-power of the Timpanogas
River, that tumbles down the neighboring canon, furnishes great
facilities. The principal manufacturing enterprise ever undertaken in
the Territory--that for the production of beet-sugar--proved a complete
failure. A capital advanced by Englishmen, to the amount of more
than one hundred thousand dollars, was totally lost, and the result
discouraged foreigners from all similar investments. Rifles and
revolvers are made in limited number from the iron tires of the numerous
wagons in which goods are brought into the Valley. There are tanneries,
and several distilleries and breweries. In the large towns there are
many thriving mechanics; but elsewhere even the blacksmith's trade
is hardly self-supporting, and the carpenters and shoemakers are all
farmers, practising their trades only during intervals from work in the
fields.

The deficiency of iron, coal, and wood is the chief obstacle to the
material development of Utah. No iron-mines have been discovered, except
in the extreme southern portion of the Territory; and the quality of the
ore is so inferior, that it is available only for the manufacture of the
commonest household utensils, such as andirons. The principal coal-beds
hitherto found are in the immediate vicinity of Green River. There are
several sawmills, all run by water-power, scattered among the more
densely-wooded canons; but they supply hardly lumber enough to meet the
demand,--even the sugar-boxes and boot-cases which are thrown aside at
the merchants' stores being eagerly sought after and appropriated. The
most ordinary articles of wooden furniture command extravagant prices.

Nowhere is the absence of trees, the utter desolation of the scenery,
more impressive than in a view from the southern shore of the Great Salt
Lake. The broad plain which intervenes between its margin and the
foot of the Wahsatch Range is almost entirely lost sight of; the
mountain-slopes, their summits flecked with snow, seem to descend into
water on every side except the northern, on which the blue line of the
horizon is interrupted only by Antelope Island. The prospect in that
direction is apparently as illimitable as from the shore of an ocean.
The sky is almost invariably clear, and the water intensely blue, except
where