"I fished two or three hours during the morning and evening and caught twelve in all. One half of them would weigh three-fourths of a pound each, while all the rest of the camp did not catch three pounds in all, which was taken as proof that the artificial fly is far the best to fish with.
"In the afternoon I went to Bridger's house and traded off my flint-lock rifle for four buffalo robes which were large, nice, and well dressed. I found things generally at least one-third higher than I had ever known them at any other trading post I ever saw in America.
"I arose in the morning quite unwell and felt threatened with the mountain fever, yet I mounted my horse and rode till ten o'clock; but before I started I was called upon to administer to Brother Carter, who was taken with the fever. There were new cases of the mountain fever every day in camp. At ten o'clock I had to give up and take to my bed in the wagon with distressing pain in my head, back, joint bones, marrow and all through my system, attended with cold chills and hot flashes through the body. We traveled over thirteen miles of as bad road as any we had on our journey, which made it exceedingly painful to the sick. The day seemed very long to me. When we stopped at night, I took composition, cayenne, and a dose of vegetable pills, had a better night than I expected; and though I was feeble in the morning, I felt that my fever was broken up and I was recovering.
"The night of the 10th we camped one and a half miles from Bear River, by the best stream of water we had found on the route, and a small stream near by a valley six miles long, grass knee deep, strong mineral springs, copper, lead, coal, and lime.
"Camp fires were discovered about three miles from our camping ground and George A. Smith and others went over to them and found them to be in the camp of a Mr. Miles Goodyear. He had settled at Salt Lake and had a garden and vegetables, he said, doing well. Several Missourians were with him going to the States.
"The subject was brought up concerning the emigrant company who had perished in the mountains last winter. They were mostly from Independence and Clay Counties, Missouri, and were a mob company that threatened to drive out the Mormons who were in California, and started with that spirit in their hearts. But it seemed as though they were ripe for judgment. The snows fell upon them eighteen feet deep on a level, many died and others turned cannibal. About forty persons perished. They were mostly eaten up by those who survived them. Mrs. L. Murphy of Tennessee, whom I baptized while on a mission in that country, but since apostatized and joined the mob, was in that company and died, or was killed, and eaten. Her bones were sawed to pieces for her brains and marrow, and then left strewn upon the ground.
"We spent the Sunday in camp, but some of the brethren rode out to seek out the road and found a tar spring about fifteen miles south of our camp.
"Early Monday morning, I rode to Bear River, and for the first time I saw the long-looked-for Bear River Valley.
"The spot where we struck it was not very interesting. There was considerable grass in the valley and some timber and thick brushes on the bank of the river. My object in riding to the river before the camp was to try my luck in fishing for trout. After fishing for several hours, I started after the camp, having caught eight trout in all.
"The pioneers had traveled nine miles and nooned in a valley. I found President Young very sick with the fever. The company had started on, but President Young lay so sick that he concluded not to move from where he was. Brothers Kimball, Benson, Rockwood, and others stayed with him with their wagons.