[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 12 + I started early in the morning & rode to bear River And for the first time I saw the long looked for Bear River valley. Yet the spot whare we stuck it was nothing vary interesting. There was Considerable grass in the valley & some timber & thick bushes on the bank of the river. My object in visiting the river before the Camp was to try my luck in ketching trout as it was A stream famed for Containing that kind of fish. It was Cloudy & cool but I found it A difficult stream to fish in with the fly in consequence of the thick underbrush. I fished several hours & had all sorts of luck good bad and indiferent.
I some of the time would fish half an hour & Could not start a fish. Then I would find an eddy with 3 or 4 trout in it & they would jump at the hooks as though there was A bushel of trout it the hole. And in one instance I caught two at a time. I fished some of the time on horsback riding in the middle of the stream which was about 3 rods wide & when I Could not desend longer in the stream for swift & deep water I would have to plunge my horse through the bear thickets which was hard work to penetrate. And I knew not at what moment I would have A griselly bear upon my back or An Indian Arrow in my side for I was in danger of both. Some of the time I would have A dozen bites at my hook in one & nearly drown 3 or 4 trout & not get one. I finally wound up my fishing & started after the camp Having Caught [-] trout in all.
The Camp travled 9 miles & nooned in a valley. I found President Young vary sick with the fever. The camp started on But President Young being so sick concluded not to move from whare He was. Brs Kimball, Benson, Rockwood & others stoped with him with there waggons. We drove without any road over Hills & dales. Had to take our own road as we went along.
We camped at night in Mallers valley by the side of Reddings Cave. This Cave is about 20 feet wide at its mouth 7 feet high & 30 feet long at the back part of the cave Are large wolf dens or other Animals. The cave is composed of light Coulored sand stone vary soft. Many of us cut our names in it. There are many curious rocks that surround it. We passed by A mountain of pudding stone composed of gravel sand & cement &c. Its spires were reaching up like the pyramids of Egypt. The valleys begin to grow more fertile & the Air more pacific than in the wind River Country.
Professor Pratt informed me that his Baromet-rical + observation made the South pass to be 7,085 feet above the level of the sea. Also it was 280 miles from [Corsert?]. 16 3/4 miles the distance of the day.
[source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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