CAPTAIN STANSBURY'S EXPEDITION TO THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
FROM THE LITERARY WORLD.
An Expedition to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah: including a Description of its Geography, Natural History, and Minerals, and an Analysis of its "Waters, with an au-thentic account of the Mormon Settlement, &c. By How-ard Stansbury, Captain Corps Topographical Engineers, U. S. A. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co.
The party ofinvestigation led by Capt. STANSBURY for the purposes of a reconnoissance of the great Western routes and a survey of the Mormon Territory was or-ganized by the Bureau of Topographical Engineers in 1849. In June of that year the expedition, including eighteen men with five wagons and forty-six horses and mules, set forth from Fort Leavenworth. It reached Salt Lake City at the close of August. A year was passed at this point in winter quarters and in a comprehensive survey of the adjacent regions, the route to Fort Hall, the circuit of the lake byland, its exploration by water, a scientific adjustment of localities, measurement of distances, and an examination of the agricultural and mineral resources and the natural history of the country. On the 27th of August, 1850, the company set out on its return, pur-suing generally the same route, by the emigration road, of the advance, and reaching Fort Leavenworth on the 6th of November. The objects of the journey were of a prac-tical character, and were pursued with a systematic zeal and fidelity, fully exhibiting the value and importance of the scientific training of the officers of the army.
A man has a very inadequate idea of the services of a modern officer, at least of the school of those who gradu-ate at West Point, who thinks his duties begin with rou-tine and pipe-clay and end with the slaughtering of his foes. A battle maybe but of single occurrence in a life-time ; but on the vast area of duty of our great Western possessions the officers of the army are continually exer-cising their capacity as engineers, surveyors, pioneers,foresters, with the multitude of relations to the Indians of the Wilderness, to the emigration parties which the re-mote frontier life induces. There they encounter every variety of hardship, of climate, and prove their manhood by tests unknown to the camps and parades of Europe. They exhibit every day the virtues of courage and endu-rance, though seldom honored with the glory of military conquest. Their acts are those of the soldier, but they minister directly to peace. They lay down the road for the emigrant, instruct him in the best methods of transit, and neutralize or overpower the hostility of the savage. When actual warfare tests their powers on a more bril-liant field, they are found, as in Mexico, the sure masters of victory.
Capt. Stansbury and his brother officer's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, besides providing a liberal fund of information and entertainment for the general reader, is stocked with practical results which will guide over his long journey the little caravan of the humblest emi-grant. Such is the itinerary of every day's journey by which the progress of a camp way be regulated with military precision, the meteorological journals, the ad-vice as to routes, and the example, worth as much as any of the rest, of cheerful, uniform good sense and perse-verance.
The value of a nice calculation of resources and ad- justment of means to the ends of the journey is not to be despised on the prairie. Every where along that great route Capt. Stansbury, in 1849, found the wreck of capi-tal and comfort in the abandonment of articles of value. We have constantly in his journal such records as these :
"A small party, with a single wagon, drove into camp just as we were leaving the ground. They had funned part of a company from St. Louis, had proceeded within sixty miles of Fort Kearny, but had quarrelled, and become disgusted with the trip and with each other, and had separated. These per-sons were on their return to St. Louis. They gave discourag-ing accounts of matters ahead. Wagons, they said, could be bought upon the route of emigration for from ten to fifteen dollars apiece, and provisions for almost nothing at all. So much for arduous enterprises rashly undertaken, and prose-cuted without previous knowledge or suitable preparation! What else could be expected ?
"We passed to-day the nearly-consumed fragments of about a dozen wagons that had been broken up and burnt by their owners: and near them was piled up in one heap from six to eight hundred weight of bacon, thrown away for want of means to transport it further. Boxes, bonnets, trunks, wagon wheels, whole wagon-bodies, cooking utensils, and in fact almost eyery article of household furniture, were found from place to place the prairie, abandoned for the same reason.
"The road, as usual, was strewn with fragments of broken and burnt wagons, trunks, and immense quantities of white beans, which seemed to have been thrown away by the sack-ful, their owners having become tired of carrying them further or afraid to consume them from danger of the cholera. The commanding officer at Fort Kearny had forbidden their issue at that post on this account. Stoves, gridirons, moulding-planes, and carpenters tools of all sorts, were to be had at every step for the mere trouble of picking them up.
"To-day we find additional and melancholy evidence of the difficulties encountered by those who are ahead of us. Before halting to noon, we passed eleven wagons that had been broken up, the spokes of the wheels taken to make pack-sad-dles, and rest burnt or otherwise destroyed. The road has been literally strewn with articles that been thrown away. Bar-iron and steel, large blacksmiths' anvils and bel-lows, crow-bars, drills, augers, gold-washers, chisels, axes, lead, trunks, spades, ploughs, large grindstones, baking-ovens, cooking-stoves without number, kegs, barrels, harness, cloth-ing, bacon, and beans, were found along the road in pretty much the order in which they have been here enumerated. The carcases of eight oxen, lying in one heap by the roadside, this morning, explained a part of the trouble. I recognised the trunks of some of the passengers who had accompanied me from St. Louis to Kansas, on the Missouri, and who had here thrown away their wagons and every thing they could not pack upon their mules, and proceeded on their journey. At the noon halt, an excellent rifle was found in the river, thrown there by some desperate emigrant had been una-ble to carry it any further. In the course of this one day the relics of seventeen wagons and the carcases of twenty-seven dead oxen have been seen."
Flour and bacon had been sold as low as one cent per pound, and in many cases meat had been used for fuel, and so on till we are sickened with the recital. In the early summer of 1849 a Mr. Brulet, a trader from Fort Laramie, on his way to St. Louis, in the course of forty clays on the road, had met not less than four thousand wagons, averaging four persons to a wagon.
It was one of Capt. Stansbury's regulations on the journey never to travel on Sunday, except in cases of ne-cessity. His testimony to the favorable results of this course, looking merely to temporal prosperity, agrees with that of the most profound observers who have tested the results of human labor and the amount of human en-durance by the institution of a week of six days' toil fol-lowed by one of rest. "I here beg to record, as the re- sult of my experience, derived not only from the present journey, but from the observation of many years spent in the performance of similar duties, that, as a mere matter of pecuniary consideration, apart from allhigher obliga-tions, it is wise to keep the Sabbath. "More work can be obtained from both men and animals by its observance than where the whole seven days are uninterruptedly de-voted to labor."
We select a few of the incidents of the journey:
A DUTCHMAN EN ROUTE.
"We passed also an old Dutchman, with an immense wagon, drawn by six yoke of cattle, and loaded with household furniture. Behind followed a covered cart con-taining the wife, driving herself, and a host of babies—the whole bound to the land of promise, of the distance to which, however, they seemed to have not the most re-mote idea. To the tail of the cart was attached a large chicken-coop full of fowls, two milk cows followed, and next came an old mare, upon the back of which was perch-ed a little brown-faced, bare-footed girl, not more than seven years old, with a small sucking colt brought up the rear. We had occasion to see this old gentleman and his caravan frequently afterwards, as we passed and re-passed each other, from time to time on fhe road. The last we saw of him was on the Sweetwater, engaged in sawing his wagon into two parts, for the purpose of con-verting it into two carts, and in disposing of everything he could sell or give away to lighten his load."
A HAPPY FAMILY ON THE PRAIRIE.
"We passed to-day through a large village or settle-ment of the prairie-dog, ( Arctomys ludoviciana,) extending in length not less than half a miie. These little animals are very, shy, and, at the least approach of a stranger, hie themselves with all speed to their holes, in which they partly bury their bodies, leaving only their heads visible just above the surface of the ground, where, so long as the alarm lasts, they keep up a continual barking. The note somewhat resembles the bark of a small puppy, but is nevertheless so peculiar as to be instantly recognised ever afterwards by any one who has once distinctly heard it. They are very hard to get, as they are never found far from their holes ; and when shot fall immediately in- to them, where they are generally guarded by a rattle-snake—the usual sharer of their subterranean retreat. Several were shot by us in this situation, but when the hand was about to be thrust into the hole to draw them out, the ominous rattle of this dreaded reptile would be instantly heard, warning the intruder of the danger he was about to incur. A little white burrowing owl also (Stryx cuniculciria) is frequently found taking up his abode in the same domicil; and this strange association of rep-tile, bird, and beast seem to live together in perfect har-mony and peace. I have never personally seen the owl thus housed, but have been assured of the fact from so many, so various, and so credible source that I cannot doubt it, The whirr of the rattlesnake I have heard fre-quently when the attempt was made to invade these holes, and our men at length became afraid to approach them for this purpose."
GAME BEEF AND AN INDIAN'S APPETITE.
"The flesh of a fat buffalo-cow is perhaps the best beef that can be eaten ; wholly free from the rank flavor which parks the fat of the male, it is at once juicy, tender, nu-tritious, and very digestible; added to which it has a game flavor which renders it far superior to the very best beef of the States. It may, in fact, be not improperly denominated 'game beef.'
"This was the first time that any ofmy mess had par- taken of that famous dish, the 'hump,' and the quantity disposed of was the best proof of the intense relish with which it was enjoyed. This and the tongue, tender-loin, bass, and marrow-bones, are considered the choice parts of the carcase, and where the animals are plenty, no other parts are taken, the residue being left on the ground for the wolves. Some idea may be formed of the great di-gestibility of this species of food, as well as of the enor-mous quantities devoured at a single meal, from the fact that the regular daily allowance or ration for one em- ployee in the Fur Company's service is eight pounds, the whole of which is often consumed. It is true, however, that an old mountaineer seldom eats any thing else. If he can get a cup of strong coffee, with plenty of sugar, and as much buffalo-meat as he can devour, he is perfect-ly happy and content, never feeling the want either of bread or vegetables * * *
[Subsequently meeting with an Indian encampment of Sioux] "the whole band halted about ten o'clock on the bank of the river, but several of the old men and the chief of the village continued with us until our noon halt. I invited the latter to lunch with us, which he did to his en-tire satisfaction, devouring as much meat as the whole mess beside; and I afterwards espied him seated at one of the messes of the men, as earnestly engaged in laying in an additional supply as if he had not eaten for a week. The Indian, in fact, from his wandering habits and un-certain mode of existence, acquires the faculty of laying in, when opportunity offers itself, a store of food against the fast that may follow, thus approximating the instincts of other wild denizens of the forest."
MAINE COFFINS OUTDONE.
"I witnessed at the Pacific Springs an instance of no little ingenuity on the part of some emigrant. Imme-diately alongside of the road was what purported to be a grave, prepared with more than usual care, having a headboard on which was painted the name and age of the deceased, the time of his death, and the part of the coun-try from which he came. I afterwards ascertained that this was only a ruse to conceal the fact that the grave, in-stead of containing the mortal remains of a human being, had been made a safe receptacle for divers casks of brandy, which the owner could carry no further. He afterwards sold his liquor to some traders further on, who, by his description of its locality, found it without difficulty."
A PARTY OF INDIAN WOMEN.
"The valley of Ogden's Creek, or Ogden's Hole, (as places of this kind, in the nomenclature of this country, are called,) has long been the rendezvous of the Northwest Company, on account of its fine range for stock in the winter, and has been the scene of many a merry reunion of the hardy trappers and traders of the mountains. Its streams were formerly full of beaver, but these have, I believe, entirely disappeared. Some few antelope were bounding over the green, but the appearance of fresh Indian signs accounted for their scarcity.
"During our ride through the valley we came suddenly on a party of eight orten Indian women and girls, each with a basket on her back, gathering grass-seeds for their winter's provision. They were of the class of root-dig-gers, or, as the guide called them, snake-diggers. The instant they discovered us an immediate and precipitate flight took place, nor could all the remonstrances of the guide, who called loudly after them in their own language, induce them to halt for a single moment. Those who were too close to escape by running hid themselves in the bushes and grass so effectually that in less time than it has taken to narrate the circumstance only two of them were to be seen. These were a couple of girls of twelve or thirteen years of age, who, with their baskets dangling at their backs, set off at their utmost speed for the moun-tains, and continued to run as long as we could see them, without stopping, or so much as turning their heads to look behind them. The whole party was entirely naked. After they had disappeared, we came near riding over two girls of sixteen or seventeen, who had 'cached' be-hind a large fallen tree. They started up, gazed upon us for a moment, waved to us to continue our journey, and then fled with a rapidity that soon carried them be-yond our sight."
A reconnaissance around Great Salt Lake was found to be attended with peculiar difficulties, chiefly from the absence of water—in one case for a distance of seventy miles ; and the soil for the most part was found irremedi-ably barren and unproductive, glistening with salt like a surface of snow in dry weather, and suddenly converted into or rather mortar, in wet. This was the scene of some of Fremont's hardships. The difficulties occur on the west side of the lake ; upon the east are the pas-ture grounds and mountain settlements of the Mormon population.
In another paper we shall notice Captain Stansbury's impressions of this singular people, in connexion with the interesting volume of his associate in the expedition, Lieut. J. W. Gunnison, who has written freely of the pre-sent condition and prospects of the Latter Day Saints. Meanwhile we commend Capt. Stansbury's volume as a full, satisfactory, and much desired account of the geo-graphy, the geological and other peculiarities of the region. His style is simple and unpretending, but it is correct and manly, and we never weary of it. In the scientific departments he has the aid of Professor Spencer F. Baird, and Professor Haldeman, Charles Girard, and Titian R. Peele in the classification and descriptions of the animal world. Prof. Torrey contributes to the botany, Prof. Hall to the geology, and Dr. L. D. Gale's analyses of such of the mineral waters survived the hazards of the journey. The meteorological observations were faith-fully kept and recorded. Two excellent maps of large size, calculated to be of great use to the emigrant, ac-company the volume, furnishing the route by the forts and the liberal range of environs of the Mormon city, with exact detail.' The engravings are numerous, and from well chosen points of observation ; but they have, from want of liberality—of which we see no traces in the other portions of the volume, which is thoroughly well printed—or from some other cause, fallen into inefficient hands. They are, many of them, inefficient specimens of litho-graphy.
