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Show TO WANSHIP SETTLEMENT. 79 the bird kind in this section of country, so the guns were packed away, and fishing rods and lines took their places. The Weber River, along which our route lay for several miles, flows into the Dead Sea of America a short distance below the mouth of the Bear River. Along this stream there are numerous farms, and nearly the whole country, as far as we marched, was cut up by fences. The farms here are irrigated from streams that flow into the river. The stream down Echo, Chalk creek, a few miles south of it, and other mountain streams, are made useful in this way. The grain fields were just ripening for harvest when we passed, and in this valley wheat, oats and rye yield almost as lux uriantly as in the most fertile parts of the valley of the Great Salt Lake, of which I shall say something in a future letter. Passing southward we soon came to a settlement of the fol lowers of Brigham, known as Coalville, and so named be cause of the coal found there, and is the source from which Salt Lake City is supplied with that fuel. It requires to be hauled fifty miles. Coalville contains about seventy- five small houses, and has a population of about five hundred, including children, who largely predominate. Most of th? houses are of logs, very roughly constructed, but there are also several neat adobe residences and stores. I was pleased with the ap pearance of one of the buildings, and approaching I read on a slab over the door, u Coalville Meeting- house." I felt disposed to respect the deluded people for setting apart the best house in their village as a place of worship ; but when passing through the place, on another occasion, I observed hanging by the side of the door of their " Meeting- house" a variety of specimens of the art of the photographer. Whether or not the house had been converted into a photo graphic establishment as a more profitable use to put it to, or the artist and priest used it jointly, I am unable to say, but am inclined to the opinion that the minister was also the photographer, and had combined his spiritual and secular interest in an economical way. |
