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had been worked hard while driven to the valley and after their arrival, while those turned out to range did not fatten quickly. Butter and tallow were needed. One wild steer, well fattened, was brought in from Goodyear 's rancho. A herd of deer crossing from one range of mountains to another was startled by the unexpected obstruction of the fort, and one sprang into the enclosure and was killed. Wild sago and parsnip roots constituted the vegetable food of the settlers. A few deaths occurred from poisonous roots. The bracing air and hard work stimulated appetite as stores decreased. For coffee parched bar- ley and wheat were used, and as their sugar gave out, they substituted some of home manufacture.* In the spring thistle tops were eaten, and became an impor- tant article of diet.^
Anxiety began to be felt about clothing, and the hand-looms were now busily at work, although wool was scarce.*' As shoes wore out, moccasins were sub- stituted, and goat, deer, and elk skins were manu- factured into clothing for men and women, though most unsuitable for use in rain and snow.
At the time of Parley P. Pratt's arrival, the city of Great Salt Lake consisted of a fort enclosing a block of ten acres, the walls of part of the buildings being of adobes and logs. There were also some tents.^ As additional companies came in, they ex-
- * We manufactured our own sugar and molasses from beets, corn-stalks,
and watermelons, and made preserves for winter, which were excellent, by- boiling the rinds of the melons in this molasses.' Hornets Migrations, MS., 30. ' I attempted to make sugar out of com. A rude apparatus was made to squeeze the corn stalks, but the manufacture was not altogether a success. After this, beet molasses followed. The boiler I used this time I made out of some stove piping and lumber. Brother Cannon and I assisted to saw our lumber.' Taylor s Reminiscences, MS., 16.
- Geo. Q. Cannon, in JtiiK Inst., xix. no. 5, 68.
^ ' They collected the hair of the bufialo from the sage brush as they travelled, and used also the hair of cows.' Hume's Migrations, MS., 35. From this blankets were woven and used in exchange with the Indians. Mrs Home remarks that ' in Nauvoo there was a man dressed througliout in a suit made from the curly hair of his dog, which was sheared annually.'
' It stood on what was later known as the 6th Ward Square.
