THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 



the mouth of Emigration Canyon into the valley of the 

 Great Salt Lake. It was a beautiful picture that greeted 

 the eyes of the fugitives as they rested here to enjoy the 

 shade of the cottonwoods and listen to the music of the 

 mountain torrent and the birds. Out of the chill air of 

 the higher altitudes, out of the dark shadows of the 

 picturesque chasm, they had come by a sudden turn 

 face to face with a broad, sunlit valley, which sloped 

 gently away to the shore of an inland sea. On the east, 

 the Wasatch mountains reared their brown and rifted bar- 

 riers until their summits were lost in a crown of eternal 

 snows. To the south and west the Oquirrhs marshalled 

 their peaks into the waters of the lake. Below them, 

 valley and lake ; around them on every side, mountains 

 and more mountains ; over them, the impalpable sky 

 this was the vision which burst suddenly upon the tired 

 eyes of the pilgrims. 



When they had proceeded a little farther they caught 

 sight of a large fresh lake some miles to the south, emp- 

 tying its surplus waters into an inland sea through a 

 slender river, which shone like a ribbon of silver. The 

 comparison suggested by these strange conditions might 

 have occurred to a duller mind than that of Brigham 

 Young, who felt that he was a Moses leading a new tribe 

 of Israel to a new promised land. The fresh lake was 

 the sea of Tiberius ; the salt one, the Dead Sea ; the 

 river was, of course, the Jordan. This, then, was the 

 new Palestine, and here the leader and his followers 

 would build the new Jerusalem ! Advancing a few 

 miles into the valley, and halting near the banks of a 

 roaring brook, Brigham Young struck his staff upon the 

 ground and exclaimed, " Here we will rear our temple in 



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