HISTORY.-New Mexico was among the earliest of the interior portions of North America visited by the Spaniards. Alvar Nunez, (Cabeça de Vaca,) with the remnant of those who accompanied Narvaez to Florida, reached New Mexico before 1537, and made report to the Viceroy of Mexico of their discoveries. An expedition under Coronado, in 1540, traversed the country north of the Gila, occupied by the Pueblo Indians, and pushed their way eastward beyond the Rio Grande to the country of the cibola, or buffalo. Coronado is the first who speaks of that animal, which he calls "a new kind of ox, wild and fierce, whereof the first day they killed fourscore, which sufficed the army with flesh." In 1581 other adventurers made known the mineral wealth of the country, which caused it to be called New Mexico. About this time Augustine Buiz, a Franciscan missionary, entered the country, and was soon afterward murdered by the Indians. Don Antonio Espejo was sent with a body of men to protect the missions. The Viceroy of Mexico also sent Juan de Onate to take formal possession of the country in the name of Spain, and establish colonies, missions, and forts. He arrived there about the year 1600. The missionaries met with great success in their efforts at the christianization of the Indians. The Pueblo Indians more readily adopted the new faith than the roving tribes; and on recently rediscovering some of these Pueblos, it was found that, though they had been without a priest for nearly a century, they had preserved many of the Christian rites and doctrines, yet strangely blended with their old religion.

Many of the natives, at the time the Spaniards took formal possession of the country at the close of the sixteenth century, were considerably advanced in civilization. They wore cotton garments of their own manufacture. Their arms were large bows and arrows, terminated with sharp-pointed stones, and long wooden swords, also armed with sharp stones. They carried shields made of the raw hides of buffaloes. Some of them lived in stone houses several stories high, with the walls ornamented with pictures, residing in the valleys and cultivating the soil. In the villages were a great many idols, and in every house a chapel dedicated to some evil genius.

Under the administration of Onate, many new missions were established, and mines were opened and worked. But the colonists enslaved the Indians and compelled them to work in the mines. The spirit of the natives revolted, and after several ineffectual attempts to free themselves from their oppressors, they finally, in 1680, drove the Spaniards out of the country, and reconquered it to themselves as far south as El Paso del Norte. The Spaniards attempted several times to regain their lost possessions, but did not succeed until 1698.

In 1846 Santa Fe was taken by the United States forces under General Kearney, who soon after conquered the whole territory from Mexico, which in 1848 ceded it to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. New Mexico was organized as a Territory of the United States on the 9th of September, 1850.

UTAH.

UTAH was originally a part of Upper California, and was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It was erected into a separate Territory in 1850, but since that time its original area has been greatly reduced. It is bounded on the - north by Idaho, and on the north-east by Dakota; on the east by Colorado, on the south by Arizona, and on the west by Nevada. It lies between 37° and 42° of north latitude, and 32° and 38° of longitude west from Washington. It is at present included within the following specific limits: Beginning at the intersection of the 42d° of latitude with the 33d of longitude; thence south along said 33d meridian of longitude to the 41st of latitude; thence east on said 41st parallel of latitude to the 32d of longitude; thence south on said 32d meridian of longitude to the 37th of latitude; thence west on said 37th parallel of latitude to the 38th of longitude; thence north on said 38th meridian of longitude to 42d° of latitude, and thence east on said 42d parallel of latitude to the place of beginning.

Utah extends about 350 miles from north to south, and about 250 from east to west. It covers the region drained by the Great Salt Lake, and probably some 10,000 square miles besides. On the east are the Wasatch Mountains, the first of the subsidiary ranges of the Rocky Mountains, and, as it were, the eastern guard of the Salt Lake Valley, and on the west the Great Central American Desert, as it is sometimes called, forming part of the vast interior basin of this section of the North American continent, which is hemmed in by mountains on all sides; has a general elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, and has its own system of lakes and rivers, but no communiIcation with the ocean. The valley, or basin, of the Great Salt Lake is likewise a continent within a continent, with its own miniature salt sea, its independent chain of mountains, its distinct lakes and rivers, but with no outlet to the ocean.

The Wasatch Mountains, 10,000 feet high, and covered with perpetual snow, inclose the Salt Lake Valley on the east and south. This great branch or range of the Rocky Mountains lies south of Great Salt Lake, and under various names, passes north to the east of that lake. Toward the south-west this mountainous region is traced along the west side of the Colorado toward the Sierra Nevada, which bounds California on the east. In Utah the mountains spread over a wide district, and the ridges of the several groups run in various directions, the course of those known as the Uintah Mountains, east of Great Salt Lake, being east and west. The only drainage from these mountains into the ocean is from their east and north sides. By the Colorado, the waters are carried south-west to the head of the Gulf of California, in latitude 32° north, and by the Lewis or Snake Fork of the Colum

bia River, north-west to the Pacific Ocean, in latitude 46° north. Nearly the whole distance between these points, and for a width of about ten degrees of longitude, stretching east from the Sierra Nevada, is a vast territory, from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, abounding in lakes and rivers, some of the lakes being salt, and none of them having an outlet to the ocean. Into this great interior basin flow all the waters that fall on the western slopes of the Wasatch range and the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.

MINERALS AND MINING.-The mountainous regions of Utah are, doubtless, rich in mineral wealth. Discoveries hitherto have been chiefly of silver, in connection with large deposits of lead and copper. Among the canons or ravines of the Rush Lake Valley, from a hundred to two hundred mines, recently discovered, are worked to various depths of ten to one hundred feet. Some old Nevada miners, who have inspected these mines, describe them as promising to become fifty per cent. better than the famous silver mines of the Comstock Lode. In Nevada, a yield of fifty or a hundred dollars to a ton of ore is considered a fair and profitable return; but the Rush Valley ores of Utah have produced from one hundred to five hundred dollars per ton, and lodes have been opened that afford from one thousand to four thou sand dollars to the ton. This last extraordinary yield was obtained from a mine opened in 1865, and named the New York lead. The further these mines are worked, the richer they grow. There are mines of bituminous coal of a fair quality over the mountains, forty miles east of Salt Lake City.

In more remote parts of the Territory, other silver mines have been discovered, and have been worked with success. Their distance from markets, the want of suitable machinery for their profitable operation, and the lack of capital among those who have discovered them, have hitherto retarded their complete development; but in the opinion of those best acquainted with these mines, they offer one of the best fields in the West for capital and enterprise, and induce the belief that when they become better known, they will produce such an interest and excitement as will give Utah a new population and a more rapid growth. COUNTIES.-Utah is divided into the following counties: Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Great Salt Lake, Green River, Iron, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Pi-ute, Richland, Sawpete, Sevier, Summit, Toosle, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, and Weber.

Great Salt Lake City is the county town of Great Salt Lake; Provo City, of Utah, and St. George, of Washington County.

LAKES AND RIVERS.-Great Salt Lake is one of the most prominent attractions in the topography of Utah. It is a miniature ocean in the northern part of the Territory, about fifteen miles from Salt Lake City, fifty miles wide by one hundred in length, and so salt that no fish can live in it, and that three quarts of its briny water will boil down or evaporate to one quart of pure salt. Three or four quite large streams empty into it, and yet it has no visible outlet. By evaporation, in hot weather, its shores are covered with a thick incrustation of salt. has high, rocky islands; its broad expanse offers a wide space for sail

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