A Flight in Spring / In the car Lucania from New York to the Pacific coast and back, during April and May, 1898

by J. Harris Knowles

Corpse-colored with white mould of alkali,

Hairy with sage-brush, shiny after rain,

Burnt with the sky's hot scorn, and still again

Sullenly burning back against the sky.

"Dull green, dull brown, dull purple, and dull gray,

The hard earth white with ages of despair,

Slow-crawling, turbid streams where dead reeds sway,

Low wall of sombre mountains far away,

And sickly steam of geysers on the air."

In due time we reached Ogden, a busy-looking place. We did not leave our car, however, for any inspection, waiting for the short run to Salt Lake City, where we were to spend the night and the next day.