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Show THE JOURNEY TO UTAH. 49 swell as far as the eye can reach, as if the heaving ocean had suddenly become firm fixed earth ; and immense pampas spread away alternating flint and gravel with strips of wiry, curly grass, or at rare intervals a protected growth of stunted shrubs. Only the lowest vales contain any cultivable land, and that, to be productive, requires irrigation ; the bright flowers of the Missouri Valley are seen no more, the lark- spur alone retaining its hues; the wild sunflower and yellow saffron become dust- hued and dwarfish, while milk- weed and resin- weed sustain a sort of dying life, and cling with sickly hold to the harsh and forbid- " THE GOOD OLD TIME." ding soil. Now appear depressed basins, with saline matter dried upon the soil, and long flats white with alkali, as if they had been sowed with lime. This is the " Great American Desert" of early geographers, a region practically worthless to the agriculturist, though half its surface is of some value for grazing. Antelope and prairie dog show themselves in considerable numbers, but it is too late for the buffalo; the main line of their northward migration passed two months before, nor are they to be seen as in the good old time the hunters tell about. I shall not inflict upon the reader the standard description of these animals, much less the account of dog, owl and rattlesnake as a 4 |
