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Show 140 . SOIL- W^ TKR-^- iaEI& ATION. great to entitle the present Territory of Utah to demand from tie General Government admission into the Union ksjwje of the sovO-reigp State&. of the confederacy, and thus to secqre to themselves Unmolested the right to carry Out in practice the peculiar principles of their creed. That thqir wishes in. this respect trill be shortly realized may be considered certain. Let 11s. now look for a moment at the sources which can be made available for the sustenance of a population so numerous as it is thus eopfijiently anticipated will, ere long be congregated within the. limits of the " BasinState." Situated so far inland, without water communication with any part of the continent,-$ hd isolated • by the very nature of . the surrounding regions, it will readily be seen that the- new State must necessarily depend in a great measure, for its support, upon means within itself. . Agriculture and the raking of stock must therefore, be the'principal baste of its - prosperity. For botfr theBe purposes the feoimtry which they have s' 4t- ' tied is, fortunately, well adapted. The land available for the first of these objects, though limited in extent when compared with the vjtst doserts which intervene, is still ample for th? support of a large, .' though not tery dense population. Owing to the almost total absence of rain, from May to October, the dependence of the fanner must be entirely upon irrigation. The means for this ate supplied . from the reservoirs of snow which accumulate in the gorges of the mountains, furnishing, during the whole of the summfer, abundant and never- failing streams, which assume in some instances the character of rivers of considerable magnitude. The soil, formed chiefly from the disintegration of the feldspa-thic rock, mixed with detritus o f the limestone, of which die mountains are principally composed, is of the most fertile character. Owing to its loose and porous texture, it absorbs tfater ^ very readily and in large quantities. Consequently, the streams . whicV come ru8hiqg, down the mountain- sides, when tihOy reach the plain Jbelow, begin to dwindle into insignificant rivulets, and soon sink and are. entirely lost* Many never reach thd base of the mountain at all, being absorbed by the soil; and even in the islands . of the lake there are to be found, near the summits, roaring torrents, which, ere making half the descentof the mountain, so completely ' disappear as to leave, riot even a dry bed or channel to show they had ever reached the water below. Cultivation is therefore circumscribed within very narrow limits, being' generally restricted to a strip of from, one to two mites wide, along the t?* se |