History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

254
MIGRATION TO UTAH.
vegetation. Roused by the call of the bugle at five
o'clock in the morning, they assembled for prayers;
then they breakfasted, and upon a second call of the
bugle at seven o'clock they started, and travelled
about twenty miles for the day. At night the note
of the bugle sent each to his own wagon to prayers
and at nine o'clock to bed. They rested on Sunday,
giving up the day to fasting and prayer. They were
careful in marching to preserve order, with loaded guns
and powder-horn ready. And the better to present a
compact front, the wagons were kept well together,
usually two abreast where the ground would permit,
and the men were required to walk by the wagons.
They felled cotton-wood trees for their horses and
Route op the Mormons.
cattle to browse upon, and at last were obliged to feed
them from the grain, flour, and biscuit they carried,
subsisting meanwhile themselves on game and fish.
In the valley of the Platte roamed such vast herds of
buffaloes that it was often necessary to send parties in
advance and clear the road before the teams could
pass. At night the wagons would be drawn up in a
semicircle on the bank, the river forming a defence
upon one side. The tongues of the wagons were on
the outside, and a fore wheel of each was placed
against the hind wheel of the wagon before it; all the
horses and cattle were brought inside of the enclosure.
The corral thus formed was oblong, with an