Having considered the causes that led the outcasts of Israel to determine to seek a home in a new and uninhabited land, we may be excused if we endeavor to follow them in fancy in their journey northward. We have no way of accurately estimating their numbers, but if the posterity of all those who were carried into captivity started on this perilous journey, they must have formed a mighty host. Necessarily they moved slowly. They were encumbered with the aged and infirm, the young and the helpless, with flocks and herds, and weighed down with provisions and household utensils. Roads had to be made, bridges built, and the course marked out and decided by their leaders.[A] Inasmuch as they had turned to the Lord and were seeking a new home wherein they could the better serve Him, they were doubtless guided by inspired leaders, who, by Urim and Thummim, or through dreams and visions, pointed out the paths ahead. Perhaps, as in the days of the deliverance from Egypt, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night guided their footsteps; no matter the means, the end was accomplished, and slowly and gradually they neared the frozen regions of the Arctic zone. The distance in a direct line from the conjectured crossing of the Euphrates to the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, would be about 2,800 miles, or a seven months' journey, averaging fifteen miles a day. But according to Esdras, one year and a half was consumed in the journey, which is an evidence that they were encumbered with families and cattle, who could only travel slowly and for whom many resting places had to be found where they could recuperate. It is highly probable that, like modern Israel in its journey westward to the valleys of Ephraim, they planted temporary colonies by the way. Where the weary rested and crops were raised for future use. The length of the journey had its advantages as well as its drawbacks. The slow rate at which they traveled enabled them to become acclimatized to the rigors of the frigid zone. We must recollect that we are dealing with a people cradled in the burning sands of Egypt, and who, for many generations, had dwelt in one of the most balmy and genial climates on this globe. Their temporary sojourn in the bleaker regions near the Caspian Sea had partially prepared them for that which was to come, but it required time to give them the capability to endure the rigors of a northern climate, as they were, by ancestry and location, distinctively children of the sunny south. [Footnote A: Jesus distinctly states to the Nephites, that these tribes were led "by the Father out of the land."]