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Show 122 WINTEB IK SALT LAKE CITY. for the construction of the stations, had to be hauled from the mountains, in mary cases fifteen or twenty miles distant, over a rough country without roads. Almost every stick used for this purpose cost from twenty to thirty miles' travel of a six- mule team. This, together with the delays of getting into the cafions, where alone the timber can be procured, cutting down the trees, and hauling them down the gorges by hand to the nearest spots accessible to the teams, involved an amount of time and labour which must be experienced before it can be appreciated. All this had to be done, however, or the prosecution of the work would have been impracticable. Before leaving the Salt Lake City for Fort Hall, I had engaged the services of Albert Garrington, Esq., a member of the Mormon community, who was to act as an assistant on the survey. He was without experience in the use of instruments; but, being a gentleman of liberal education, he soon acquired, under instruction, the requisite skill, and, by his zeal, industry, and practical good sense, materially aided us in our subsequent operations. He continued with the party until the termination of the survey, accompanied it to this city, and has since returned to his mountain home, carrying with him the respect and kind wishes of all with whom he was associated. The winter season in the valley was long and severe. The vicinity of so many high mountains rendered the weather extremely variable; snows fell constantly upon them, and frequently to the depth of ten inches in the plains. In many of the cafions it accumulated to the depth of fifty feet, filling up the passes so rapidly that, in more than one instance, emigrants who had been belated in starting from the States, were overtaken by the storms in the mountain gorges, and forced to abandon every thing, and escape on foot, leaving even their animals to perish in the snows. All communication with the world beyond was thus effectually cut off; and, as the winter advanced, the gorges became more and more impassable, owing to the drifting of the snow into them from the projecting peaks. We remained thus shut up until the third of April. Our quarters consisted of a small unfurnished house of unburnt brick or adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on, which, every time it stormed, admitted so much water as called into requisition all the pans and buckets in the establishment to receive the numerous little streams which came trickling down |