My remarks produced a deep impression. I was followed by several gentlemen who heartily approved the suggestion to appoint a committee of investigation and to send the committee to Idaho, to report after a month’s absence. A motion to that effect was carried providing that the chairman and two others, to be appointed by him, should constitute that committee. The chairman did me the honor to appoint me, and also appointed Henry B. Henderson, a gentleman of great wealth, a reformer of thirty years’ standing, and one of the truest and best men who ever graced the planet with an unselfish life. The assembly then adjourned to meet again a month after, when the committee was to make its report. CHAPTER IV. THE COMMISSION REPORTS AND IDAHO IS SELECTED—COLONY NUMBER ONE PREPARES TO ENTER THE LAND OF ITS CHOICE—THE JOURNEY TO HUNTINGTON, OREGON, AND INCIDENTS AT THAT PLACE—ON TO DEER VALLEY. The commission to investigate the resources of Idaho performed their labors conscientiously and after an absence of about a month made such a report as determined our people to choose Idaho for the home of the society. This important detail being settled, it was decided to send Colony Number One into the field as speedily as possible. The commission had recommended a valley through which ran a small stream into Snake river as a suitable location. It was a beautiful valley, about twenty-five miles in length and from a quarter of one to five miles wide. The stream flowing from the high mountains near its source had never been known to fail, and poured its torrents with ceaseless power into the flood at its mouth. The mountains rose only a short distance from its banks for ten miles along its course, but when it emerged from the foot hills the broad and fertile acres spread away on both sides until they reached the top of rich divides. In the mountains along its border grew great forests of yellow pine and gold and silver abounded. Gold had also been mined in placers all along the valley, and was still found in greater or less quantity. The soil was as rich as that of the Nile, and everywhere in the wild state the grasses grew luxuriant and nutritious. The climate, we learned, was all that could be desired. Surrounded by high mountains and plateaus and nestling in the depths of an immense depression, extreme climatic changes were unknown. The winters were as mild as those of Southern Ohio and the Chinook winds from the warm Pacific currents breathed over this region, now and then, the balmy sympathy of southern climes.