"The Fourth of July came on Sunday. I accompanied President Young, Brothers Kimball, Richards, and others with the pilots to the ferry to put them across; and when we arrived at the river we saw thirteen horsemen on the opposite bank with their baggage on one of our rafts. To our great joy, who should they be but our brethren of the Mormon Battalion belonging to Captain Brown's detachment, who had been at Pueblo during the winter. Amasa Lyman, whom we had sent to them, had reached them with information of our movements and the whole detachment of one hundred and forty of the brethren were within seven days' drive of us. "When we met these brethren there was truly a hearty greeting and shaking of hands. We put them all over the river excepting one who returned with our pilots to meet the following companies of the Saints. This small detachment of the Battalion had {308} about a dozen of their horses stolen by some horse thieves, but they overtook them and got them all back but two which had gone on to Bridger. "We left Green River (the headwaters of the Colorado) on the 5th, drove twenty miles, and camped on Black's Fork. There was neither feed nor water between this place and Green River, but similar to the last two hundred miles, a sandy desert covered with sage brush. "Next evening we camped on the west side of Ham's Fork, which we crossed on the following day and drove to Fort Bridger. In the region of the Fort, before we got on to our camping ground, we crossed more than a dozen trout brooks, the water running swiftly but clear, with hard, gravelly bottoms, and the whole region of country up and down these streams was covered with grass knee deep. "The brethren caught several brook trout which was the first I had seen since I left England, and as we were to spend the next day at the Fort, I calculated on a day of fishing. As soon as I had my breakfast next morning, I rigged up my fishing rod that I had brought with me from Liverpool, fixed my reel line and artificial fly, and went to one of the brooks close by to try my luck. "The men at the Fort said that there were but few trout in the streams, and a good many of the brethren were already at the creeks with their rods trying their skill, baiting with fresh meat and grasshoppers, but no one was catching any. "I threw my fly into the water, and it being the first time that I ever tried the artificial fly in America or ever saw it tried, I watched it as it floated upon the water with as much interest as Franklin did his kite when he was experimenting in drawing lightning from the sky; and as he received great joy when he saw the electricity descend on his kite string, so was I highly gratified when I saw the nimble trout dart at my fly hook, and run away with the line. I soon worried him out and drew him to shore.