MORMONDOM. &3 



Among the wonders of the plains are the huge rocks and bluffs known as the 

 <l Buttes," which often rise from comparatively level ground, and in detached spots. Seen 

 in the gloaming, their often grotesque forms appear weird and unearthly, and the effect 

 is increased by the fact that all around is silent and desolate, and their mocking echoes 

 to the snorting iron horse are the only sounds that are heard. Some of these rock-masses 

 are columnar, and others pyramidal, in form ; some assume the shape of heads, human or 

 otherwise. Now they rise in huge walls, with as wonderful colouring as have the cliffs 

 at Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight; they are often several hundred feet in height. One, 

 particularly noted by the writer, had almost the exact form of an enormous dog seated on 

 its haunches. 



As the train approaches the confines of Mormoudom some specially grand scenery is 

 met and passed. The stern and rugged ravine known as Echo Canon* is shut in by 

 abrupt and almost perpendicular sandstone and conglomerate cliffs, with many a crag 

 standing sentinel-like, and rising high towards heaven, over the impetuous, brawling Weber 

 river. Close to the Mormon town of Echo there is a cliff 1,000 feet high, which over- 

 hangs its base fifty feet. There is also a rock known as " The Sphinx of the Valley/ 5 

 from a resemblance to the original. Weber Canon succeeds the first-named, and in this 

 is to be noted a remarkable and nearly perpendicular cleft in the cliff well known as 

 " The Devil's Slide." Further on, and the train arrives at " The Devil's Gate," where 

 the stem rock-walls narrow, and the dark hills approach each other closely. Here the 

 river becomes a boiling and furious rapid, white with foam, hurrying onward with terrible 

 impetuosity, and rolling tons of boulders before its resistless course. Some of the early 

 railway bridges were quite washed away by it, and many difficulties were met in the 

 construction of the line, heavy tunneling almost obviously having been necessary in 

 some places. But all obstacles were successfully overcome. Emerging from the gloomy, 

 rugged canon, the more or less fertile and cultivated Weber valley is, by contrast, a perfect 

 glimpse of Paradise. 



Few travellers, however much they may have to hurry, will pass through Utah without 

 a flying visit to Salt Lake City, now a very different place from what it was when Captain 

 Burton wrote his "City of the Saints." The Mormon capital is not on the main line of 

 the Pacific Railway, but is connected with it by a short branch of forty miles in length. 

 Ogden is the "junction" for Salt Lake, and has a very tolerable station, with dining- 

 rooms, book-stands, and other conveniences. The last time the writer passed through this 

 part of Utah in winter, the (spirit) thermometer on the platform at Ogden marked 16 

 Fahr., or 48 below the freezing-point of water. On the first visit, the branch railway was 

 barely commenced, and he proceeded to the "city" in a "mud-waggon," a kind of packing- 

 case on wheels for he can hardly say on springs which was driven at a furious rate. 

 How many miles he travelled perpendicularly in jolts he knows not, but he was very 

 tired on arrival at his destination. Yet the journey had much of interest in it. There 

 was, for instance, almost all the way in sight, and sometimes within a few hundred 

 yards, the Great Salt Lake the Dead Sea of America whose waters are said to be 



* Pronounced Kanyon. The word is of Spanish origin, and signifies a deep rocky defile. 



