News from Deseret.
A late letter from Frederick Rohrer, a "great Salt Lake City" correspondent of the St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette, contains the following :
The only bad road to this place is about 40 miles, running across the 'Utah Mountains.' We could travel but 10 miles each day. From Fort Kearney to the Mountains—say 1,000 miles, the road is as good as any in the States, and for 200 miles after leaving the South Pass, it is as good as any turnpike. * * This is a beautiful country, and one of the finest climates in the world—equal to that of Italy. The city is laid out in large wards, the houses being about 100 yards apart. Each ward is inclosed with a straight fence and in profuse culti-vation, which gives to the city somewhat the ap-pearance of a town. The wards are all irrigated by leading water from the mountains, in small channels, running in every direction. The crops look well. Corn, though not as good as ours, grows finely. Wheat is as good, if not better, than ours, yielding from 20 to 60 bushels per acre. Barley and Oats are also cultivated, and yield abundantly. Indeed, all kinds, and every variety of vegetables flourish profusely.
The harvest being over, the Mormons are stack-ing their grain—of which they have a considerable surplus, but owing to the great rush of emigrants, thousands of whom will have to abide here until spring, a high price is asked for it—Wheat $4 per bushel, flour, $12 per hundred.
We are boarding at a private house and are veg- etating upon the luxuries of the valley, such as milk, butter, cheese, green corn, peas, beans, tur-nips, &c.—the beef is the best I ever tasted.
The water is sweet freestone, cold as ice, land the best I ever tasted. Any quantity of it can he drank without injury—which cannot be said of any other liquid. There are several sulphur springs of pure water, near the city, and a warm white sul- phur one, used for bathing,—which would make a hydropathist laugh. The water running from it would tum a mill and is very warm, giving from its surface a continual cloud of vapor. Its medical virtues are very great, curing nearly every kind of diseases, such as scurvy, itch, mange, sore eyes, rheumatism, &c. &c.—in fact the most that is known in the "Valley."
The grasses are various and luxurious; blue grass, grows of the best quality and in abundance—also, wild flax. * * * I can scarcely realize that I am a thousand miles from home! The cultivation of an old settled country—the bustle and activity of a city—the necessaries and even the refine- ments of civilized life—together with the habits and manners of an educated race of people are ail around me! I am in the midst of a desert, and yet I see a large city, teeming with life and enter-prise—with an exhaustless soil to sustain it—des-tined to become the metropolis of a mighty empire! I am away from home, and yet home influences are around and about me; and, in imagination, I forget the distance that intervenes between us! The Mormons are a great people, and whatever may be thought of the peculiarities of their religious creed, the rapidity with which they increase, the oneness of their councils—their discipline—all foreshadow their ultimate destiny.
