Of this great march Colonel Cooke their commander wrote:

"History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry;
nine-tenths of it through a wilderness, where nothing but savages and wild
beasts are found, or deserts, where for want of water, there is no living
creature. There, with almost hopeless labor we have dug deep wells. Without
a guide we have crossed the wilderness, we have ventured into trackless
prairies, where water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and
pickax in hand we have worked our way over mountains, which seemed to defy
aught but the wild goat, and hewed a passage through a chasm of rock, more
narrow than our wagons."

After their release, most of the men took up their march for home. Perhaps
it would be more correct to say to find their families and friends, as they
did not have any home yet. They journeyed northward in California and then
crossed the mountains to Salt Lake valley where most of them arrived in
October, 1847. From there many went right on to Winter Quarters to their
families.

A number of the Battalion men remained in California to earn a little
money. Some got work with a Captain Sutter who had a large ranch on the
American fork of the Sacramento river. The "Mormons" with some others were
set to work building a mill, and it was here while digging in the mill race
that gold was discovered in California. Some of the brethren carried away a
few hundred dollars' worth when they went to Salt Lake Valley the next
summer.

Topics.--1. The call for the Mormon Battalion. 2. Its march. 3. Discovery
of Gold.