I received by Porter, some few fish hooks and lines, a ball of fish line and three pencils, but no small hooks nor knives or wafers. At twenty minutes after 3:00 p.m. the wagons began to move again, in the same order as this morning and traveled until 6:00 p.m. when we arrived at a very pretty open view of the Platte river, and the encampment was formed in a semi-circle on its banks, having traveled since noon, about five miles, and in the whole day 20 miles, over the same kind of dry, level, sandy bottom. The river here appears to be about a mile wide but very shoal. There is not much timber where we are camped, and the water is pretty muddy. I walked some this afternoon in company with Orson Pratt and suggested to him the idea of fixing a set of wooden cog wheels to the hub of a wagon wheel, in such order as to tell the exact number of miles we travel each day. He seemed to agree with me that it could be easily done at a trifling expense. After the encampment was formed, I went to Brother Luke Johnson and asked him to draw my tooth which has pained me so much for a long time. While I was speaking to him Stephen Markham came up, and wanted him to take his team and the Revenue Cutter the name by which the leather boat is called back about two miles, as they designed to seine in one of the lakes. Brother Luke Johnson drives the team which draws the boat and rides in the boat as in a wagon. I concluded I would go and watch them fish and started out on foot. I overtook Markham and John S. Higbee and in our conversation I mentioned to Brother John S. Higbee the same idea I had advanced to Orson Pratt, and he also seemed to coincide fully. After arriving at the lake they launched the boat and made three hauls. They only caught a snapping turtle, four small turtles, one duck, two small cat fish, and two creek suckers. They then concluded to return and I started on foot again with two rifles to carry. I got back to camp before they overtook me and being perfectly tired and very footsore, went to bed, but had no rest on account of the severe pain in my head and face.
Arose at 5:30, my head and face very bad indeed. I ate but little breakfast, although we had a couple of ducks and a snipe. We started out at 7:30, the morning pleasant except a strong west wind. At 9:15 arrived at Shell creek, which is about six or eight feet wide, and a poor bridge over it, but all the wagons got well over. This is about five miles from where we camped last night. We then passed through a small grove of timber, and entered again upon the wide, open prairie bottom. At 11:30 we stopped beside a small slough or lake to feed and eat, etc., being five miles from Shell creek. While stopping here, three deer passed about half a mile west of the wagons. O. P. Rockwell and Thomas Brown chased them on horses four or five miles, but did not succeed in taking any of them. The wind has fallen considerably and it is very warm and dusty. At 1:00 p.m. started again, the horse teams taking the lead, traveled about ten miles farther and encamped near a cotton wood grove on the banks of the river. The encampment was formed about half past five. Tanner's bellows and anvil were set up and a number of tires set before dark.