the base of Elk Mountain to a
broad and sandy cactus-plain, whence we descend among curious trap and
sandstone formations, simulating human architecture, to the crossing of
the North Platte. A little farther on, so close to the snow-line that we
shiver under the white ridges with a reflected chill, we cross the axial
ridge of the continent, and begin our descent toward Salt Lake by the
noble gallery of Bridger's Pass. The springs along our way become
tinctured with sulphur, alkali, and salt. We know, when we stop at a
station to drink, that we are drawing near the primeval basin of a
stagnant sea, now shrunk to its final pool in Salt Lake, but once in
size a rival of the Mediterranean. We pass over an alternation of
mountain-grades and sandy levels, cross the Green or Upper Colorado
River, stop for five minutes at the Fort-Bridger station, thread the
sinuous galleries of the Wahsatch, and come down from a savage
wilderness of sage-brush, granite, and red sandstone, into the luxuriant
green pastures of Mormondom, heavy with crops and irrigated from the
snow-peaks. Thence, one of the numerous _canons_--Emigrant or Parley's
most likely--conducts us to the mountain-walled level of Salt-Lake City.

We have now traversed the most difficult part of our road. Its
Rocky-Mountain section has cost more capital, labor, and engineering
skill than all the rest together. The return for this vast expenditure
must be no less vast,--but it will be rendered slowly. It does not lie
on the surface or just beneath the surface, as in the pastoral and
agricultural regions. It is almost entirely mineral, and must be mined
by the hardest work. But it ranges through all the metallic wealth of
Nature, from gold to iron, and no conceivable stimulus short of a
Pacific Railroad could ever have been adequate to bring it forth.

We shall find the import trade of Salt Lake by the railroad to consist
chiefly of emigrants and their chattels. If Brigham Young be still
living, his favorite policy of non-intercourse with the Gentiles may
also somewhat diminish the export business of the road. But human nature
cannot forever resist the currents of commercial interest; and the
Mormon settlements possess so many advantages for the economical
production of certain staples, that we need not be surprised to find
trains leaving Salt-Lake City with sorghum and cotton for San Francisco,
and raw silk for all the markets of the East.

From Salt-Lake City to the Humbo