STEEP TRAILS 



benches on the slopes of the Wahsatch foot- 

 hills are now gay with wild flowers, chief 

 among which are a species of phlox, with an 

 abundance of rich pink corollas, growing among 

 sagebrush in showy tufts, and a beautiful 

 papilionaceous plant, with silky leaves and 

 large clusters of purple flowers, banner, wings, 

 and keel exquisitely shaded, a mertensia, 

 hydrophyllum, white boragewort, orthocarpus, 

 several species of violets, and a tall scarlet gilia. 

 It is delightful to see how eagerly all these 

 are sought after by the children, both boys and 

 girls. Every day that I have gone botanizing 

 I have met groups of little Latter-Days with 

 their precious bouquets, and at such times it 

 was hard to beUeve the dark, bloody passages 

 of Mormon history. 



But to return to the city. As soon as City 

 Creek approaches its upper limit its waters are 

 drawn off right and left, and distributed in 

 brisk rills, one on each side of every street, the 

 regular slopes of the delta upon which the city 

 is built being admirably adapted to this system 

 of street irrigation. These streams are all pure 

 and sparkling in the upper streets, but, as 

 they are used to some extent as sewers, they 

 soon manifest the consequence of contact with 

 civilization, though the speed of their flow pre- 

 vents their becoming offensive, and little Saints 

 108 



