, "and you, my brother, will not you pitch
your tent beneath the shadow of our flag?"

"No," replied Passe-partout firmly, as he walked away, leaving the
Mormon elder by himself.

While the lecturer had been holding forth the train had been
progressing rapidly, and had reached the north-west extremity of Salt
Lake. From that point the passengers could see this immense inland
sea--the Dead Sea, as it is sometimes called, and into which an
American Jordan flows. It is even now a splendid sheet of water, but
time and the falling-in of the banks have in some degree reduced its
ancient size.

Salt Lake is seventy miles long and thirty-five wide, and is more than
three miles above the level of the sea. Though quite different from
Lake Asphaltites, it contains salt in large quantities. The specific
gravity of the water is one thousand one hundred and seventy; the same
distilled is one thousand. No fish can live in it; and though brought
down by the Jordan, Weber, and other rivers, soon perish; but it is
not true that its density is so great that no men can swim in it.

The surrounding country is well cultivated, for the Mormons are great
farmers, and various flowers, etc., would have been observed later.
Just then the ground was sprinkled with snow.

The train got to Ogden at two o'clock, and did not start again until
six; so Mr. Fogg and party had time to visit the City of the Saints by
the branch-line to Ogden. They passed a couple of hours in that very
American town, built, like all cities in the Union, with the
"melancholy sadness of right angles," as Victor Hugo said. In America,
where everything is supposed to be done on the square, though the
people do not reach that level, cities, houses, and follies are all
done "squarely."

At three o'clock our travellers were walking about the city. They
remarked very few churches, but the public buildings were the house of
the prophet, the court, the arsenal; houses of blue brick, with
porches and verandahs surrounded by gardens, in which were palm-trees
and acacias, etc. A stone wall ran round the city. In the principal
street was the market-place and several hotels; amongst them Salt Lake
House rose up.

There was no crowd in the streets, except near the temple. There was a
superabundance of females, which was accounted for by the peculiar
tenets of Mormons; but it is a mistake to suppose that all the Mormons
are polygamists. They can do as they please; but it may be sta