eight o'clock
The best course was to wait patiently , and regain the lost time by greater speed when the obstacle was removed . The procession of buffaloes lasted three full hours , and it was night before the track was clear . The last ranks of the herd were now passing over the rails , while the first had already disappeared below the southern horizon . It was eight o'clock when the train passed through the defiles of the Humboldt Range , and half-past nine when it penetrated Utah , the region of the Great Salt Lake , the singular colony of the Mormons . During the night of the 5th of December , the train ran south-easterly for about fifty miles ; then rose an equal distance in a north-easterly direction , towards the Great Salt Lake . Passepartout , about nine o'clock , went out upon the platform to take the air . The weather was cold , the heavens grey , but it was not snowing .