Transcript

FROM THE PLAINS.—The following items we glean from a letter written to us by Bishop E. D. Woolley, under date of May 12th. The Bishop was near Devil's Gate. He says:—"Elders Lyman, Rich, and several others, overtook us on the South Pass. We all travel together. All well and in good spirits. We number some 40 persons, 13 wagons, and 86 animals. We find the grass very scarce and short, and even on the Sweetwater where we expected to find it most abundant, it is no better than it is further back. The best feed we found was in Chalk Creek Kanyon. I consider this the best kanyon for a road that I have travelled in the mountains; and, considering the labor spend on the road, I consider it the best, and with a little repair, and a few alterations in its location in places, it can be made a good road. It is much easier on cattle's feet than the old road; gravel and rocks are very scarce, and the hills are low and abound with feed. We passed the coal bank of Messrs. Spriggs & Co., and I was very agreeably surprised; we were very courteously shown through the pits by Mr. Spriggs, the discoverer and superintendent of the mines, and I find that he has, by his unceasing perseverance, arrived at a vein of good coal, and will be able to furnish all the coal necessary to supply the city. When I take in consideration the disadvantageous circumstances under which he has labored, I consider him entitled to great credit for his untiring zeal and perseverance; for the external appearance is exceedingly forbidding, and but very few men, with as little means, and as little encouragement, would ever have penetrated into the ragged cliff which Mr. Spriggs has so successfully pierced. The strata is different from any I have ever seen before, and lies in anything but a desirable position.