Howard Stansbury (1806–63) trained as a civil engineer and became a major in the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. He oversaw a number of construction projects and later had geographical features and plant and animal species named after him. In 1849–51, Stansbury led an expedition to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah to carry out a scientific survey, as well as to scout possible locations for a transcontinental railroad and to evaluate emigration trails. This book, first published in 1852, is Stansbury's account of that expedition, and of his party's encounters with Brigham Young and the recently-founded Mormon community, of which he formed a favourable opinion. As well as being illustrated with scenes from the expedition and examples of fauna and flora, the report includes appendices on zoology, botany, geology and palaeontology, written by experts of the time in those fields.