[good written in pencil in upper left corner]
Camp No 5 Weber River
June 12th 1864
Dearest Jennie
I know you all will be anxious to hear from me. A few days since I wrote you a very hasty short letter in which I gave you a very imperfect sketch of our outfit but will now endeavor to be more explicite. Two weeks tomorrow we started from the city with the following outfit one four mule and two two mule teams with tents camp equipage and tools and instruments for the survey All told teamsters cook engineering party and night guard we are seventeen, the big dog makes 18 he is quite useful as camp guard to give notice of the vicinity of woolves or other animals, I commenced the survey 40 miles north of the city of the saints at a point where the weber river enters the vally of Great Salt Lake from the mountains, and run up the Weber River through the canon. The senery is magnificent, mountains composed of granite and niece towering 4 to 5000 feet almost perpendicular above us, the deep narrow gorge in which the River runs is only about three to six hundred feet wide and is the wildest place you can imagine. We were two days in getting through the first canon about two miles, where the vally suddenly enlarges, the whole character of the county changes and instead of precipitous mountains of granite thousands of feet high, the hills are completely low with green [?] sides and tops the Rock is a chalky kind of sand & limestone, in the beautiful little vally which is known as mountain dell there is a flourishing settlement of dunes presided
[good written in pencil in upper left corner]
Camp No 5 Weber River
June 12th 1864
Dearest Jennie
I know you all will be anxious to hear from me. A few days since I wrote you a very hasty short letter in which I gave you a very imperfect sketch of our outfit but will now endeavor to be more explicite. Two weeks tomorrow we started from the city with the following outfit one four mule and two two mule teams with tents camp equipage and tools and instruments for the survey All told teamsters cook engineering party and night guard we are seventeen, the big dog makes 18 he is quite useful as camp guard to give notice of the vicinity of woolves or other animals, I commenced the survey 40 miles north of the city of the saints at a point where the weber river enters the vally of Great Salt Lake from the mountains, and run up the Weber River through the canon. The senery is magnificent, mountains composed of granite and niece towering 4 to 5000 feet almost perpendicular above us, the deep narrow gorge in which the River runs is only about three to six hundred feet wide and is the wildest place you can imagine. We were two days in getting through the first canon about two miles, where the vally suddenly enlarges, the whole character of the county changes and instead of precipitous mountains of granite thousands of feet high, the hills are completely low with green [?] sides and tops the Rock is a chalky kind of sand & limestone, in the beautiful little vally which is known as mountain dell there is a flourishing settlement of dunes presided
