Socially, nothing comes amiss with them that can be classed under the head of innocent amusements; and so the great dancing pavilion and the bathing beach at Saltair are thronged daily and nightly throughout the season. Saltair! There is nothing to equal it. One thousand couples can dance upon its polished floor, while the soft breezes from over the great Salt Lake cool the flushed cheek and stimulate the most lagging appetite; or, we join the bathers and go for a dip in its briny water. Refreshed and invigorated, we rest upon the broad balconies and watch the sun in a "sea of crimson and purple and gold" as it sinks behind the mountains, which are really islands, set like gems, in the bosom of the great lake. Later, we find ourselves-wondering if famed Italian and Venetian moons can give us any clearer light, and how their radiance can flood a night more delicious than this. The strains of "Home, Sweet Home," in the closing waltz, and the thinned-out ranks of the dancers, warn us that the last train for the city is due, and sixteen miles might prove wearisome, however bright the moonlight. Saltair is upon every one's lips. No visitor misses it, unless compelled by an adverse fate; and we find ourselves drawn back again and again, each time more charmed than the last. Like the mountains, it attracts and fascinates--the mountains, which rear their misty outlines in the blue distance, and beckon and mock us. Five miles away {195} they appear as tantalizingly close; indeed, we might run over to the base of one, by way of a constitutional before breakfast. We discover, alas! that "distance lends enchantment." We are left in no possible doubt that there is a distance. The main street of the city apparently runs directly into them, and City Creek Canon, from whose clear stream its thirsty thousands drink, is reached by only a short drive. Salt Lake is truly a mountain-girt city, and its founders must have resembled them in strength of purpose and steadfast effort. To have reclaimed the desert and, in part, peopled a state, is no small achievement.