When we reached the lowest part of the valley we had to turn south to get around a little, slow running stream of salt water, that moved north and emptied into a Salt Lake.

No source of the stream could be seen from this point, but when we reached a point where we could cross, we had a smooth, hard clay bed to march over.

It seemed to have been, some day, a bed of mortar, but now baked hard, and the hoofs of the oxen dented into it no more than half an inch.

On our left hand was a perpendicular cliff, along which we traveled for quite a little way.

The range of mountains now before us to cross was black, nothing but rocks, and extremely barren, having no water in it that we knew of, so when we reached the summit we camped, tied all our animals to rocks, where they lay down and did not rise till morning.