The accommodations on the train as it was made up were rather meager; in fact, it was a cattle car that Niels rode in, and the passengers had to sit or he on the floor. The road bed appeared to lack ballast, and the ride was a jolty, tiresome one--particularly hard on Niels, who was so painfully affected by the jolting that he sought relief by bracing his hands against the floor on either side of him, thereby partially sustaining the weight of his body and easing the jar. The shaking was so great that both doors fell off the car, and, to cap the climax, some of the cars ran off the track, the one in which Niels rode standing crosswise of the track, and with two of the wheels broken off it, when the train came to a halt. This occurred on the bank of a river in Southern Canada, and the passengers breathed a sigh of relief when they discovered what a narrow escape they had from being plunged into the river. From New York the company therefore proceeded by coast steamer to New Haven, and from there by train to St. Joseph Missouri, where they were transferred to a river boat that during the next two days took them up the Missouri to Wyoming Hills, a few miles from Nebraska City, from which point they were to be conveyed by ox train to Salt Lake City, more than a thousand miles distant. Before leaving Denmark, he had not been able to walk as much as two hundred yards without stopping to rest, but he gradually improved while crossing the sea, and, though temporarily prostrated with the heat while on the river steamer, he rallied before the overland journey was undertaken. Before starting from the Missouri river the able-bodied passengers were requested to walk as much as possible on the journey, as the wagons were heavily loaded and the strength of the oxen had to be conserved, as they had an eight weeks trip before them.