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Show 107 the. agency found it difficult to operate: Not having received any funds for the fourth quarter before leaving Salt Lake last fall, and having had no mail for over four months, I was compelled to visit the city as early as possible this spring. I accordingly left the agency early in March with one man and two pack-animals, determined if possible to make my way to Fort Bridger direct, thence to Salt Lake. I also desired to ascertain if there were any practicable route for a wagon road either to Bridger, Bryan, or Green River City, on the Union Pacific'Railroad. After nearly one month's laborious efforts, I reached Fort Bridger, by crossing Green River twice and passing around the mountains through a part of Colorado, being thoroughly convinced, by my own observations, and also by the report of a surveying-party from Fort Bridger to this place last summer, that there can be no practicable wagon-road made to reach the Union Pacific Railroad north or northeast of this agency. Our only hope, therefore, is to retain and improve the execrable one we now use, leading to Salt Lake City. I therefore renew my recommendation for an appropriation to render it at least tolerable for the five or six months it is free from snow. This appears to me to be a vital matter to this agency, as with the present road, as it is, it is impossible to make any definite or reliable calculations on a trip to Salt Lake, either with regard to time or expense.7 Critchlow wrote for a leave of absence, stating that he would soon have been gone from his family for two years and he would like to leave early so that he could be in New York in his voting district to cast his ballot for U. S. Grant and the policies in which the Indian Service believed. The leave was speedily granted. During the third year of his residency things improved at Uintah Besides a combination of circumstances that benefited the Agency, Critchlow was gradually convincing the Utes that he was their advocate. 7lbid, |