[1] THE MORMON SECT was founded by Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont (1805), who claimed direct revelation from God, and in 1830 put forth the Book of Mormon, or Mormon Bible, as of Divine inspiration. The same year the Mormon Church began at Manchester, N.Y. Smith's authority was absolute, like that of the Pope, and could continue only by apostolic succession. The Mormons went first to Ohio, next to Jackson County, Mo., then to Nauvoo, Ill., where Smith was killed by a mob (1844). They had little settlements at the Pueblo of the Arkansas and at Fort Bridger. [2] POLYGAMY, or plurality of wives. The Mormons claim to practise it in accordance with a revelation of the Divine will. It is however now made an offence by United States laws framed to reach it. (See the Edmunds Bill.) [3] THEIR CITY, elevated almost a mile above the sea, "was located mainly on the bench of hard gravel that slopes southward from the foot of the mountains toward the lake valley. The houses—generally small and of one story—have a neat and quiet look, while the uniform breadth of the streets (eight rods) and the 'magnificent distances' usually preserved by the buildings (each block containing ten acres, divided into eight lots, giving each householder a quarter of an acre for buildings, and an acre for a garden) make up an _ensemble_ seldom equalled. Then the rills of bright, sparkling, leaping water which flow through each street give an air of freshness and coolness which none can fail to enjoy."—_Horace Greeley._ [4] UTAH is the name of an Indian tribe, said to mean "those who dwell on the mountains." It was formed into a Territory, 1850. "The great basin, six hundred miles by three hundred, seems to have been a vast inland sea. The immediate valley in which Salt Lake lies is much its best portion, and with irrigation the soil is very productive."—_A. D. Richardson._ But for polygamy, Utah would long ago have been a State in the Union. GROUP III. GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, AND WHAT IT LED TO. "_There is nothing in the world so sound as American society._"—GOLDWIN SMITH. I. THE GREAT EMIGRATION. EL DORADO FOUND AT LAST. "_It is always the unexpected that happens._" What El Dorado[1] had been to the active imaginings of De Soto's Spaniards, was now to become a reality that would startle the world from its long forgetfulness. The world believed they had been chasing a phantom which lured them to their death. One seeks in vain to know why Nature at last revealed the secret she had so long kept hid from those who had sought but not found, to disclose it to others who had found without seeking.