Lynchburg Virginian

We have heretofore noticed the great destruction of property attending the overland emigration to California. The St. Louis Republican publishes a letter on the subject, from which we extract the following:

From Laramie, after the first fifty miles, dead cattle and fragments of wagons came in sight, and, as far as here, I have counted one thousand wagons that have been burnt or otherwise disposed of on the road. Destruction seems to have been the prevailing emotion of every body who had to leave anything on the trip. Wagons have been wantonly sacrificed without cease, by hundreds being fired for the apparent purpose of preventing them from being serviceable to any body else, while hundreds have been used by persons for fuel at nearly every camping-ground by each successive train. From Deer Creek to the summit, the greatest amount of property has been thrown away. Along the banks of the North Platte to where the Sweetwater road turns off, the amount of valuable property thrown away is astonishing—trunks, clothing, &c., lying strewed about to the value of at least fifty thousand dollars in about twenty miles. I have counted along the road a want five hundred dead oxen and only three mules.