eight o'clock
No doubt he might have killed two or three of the first buffaloes he came in contact with ; but the engine would soon have been thrown off the line , and progress would have been hopeless . The best thing to do , then , was to wait patiently , and trust to make up time when the buffaloes had passed ; but the procession of animals lasted for fully three hours , and it was night before the track was clear . The head of the column had ere this disappeared below the southern horizon . It was eight o'clock when the train had traversed the defiles of the Humboldt range , and half-past nine when it entered Utah , the region of the great Salt Lake and the curious Mormon territory . Showing how Passe-partout went through a Course of Mormon History , at the rate of Twenty Miles an Hour . During the night of the 5-6th December , the train kept in a south-easterly direction for about fifty miles , and then went up in a north-east course towards Salt Lake . About nine o'clock in the morning , Passe-partout went out upon the platform to get a breath of fresh air .