The Valley & the Crickets

So we left The Horn, I think in April, and took until the next Fall to get into the valley. I arrived in the valley on the first day of October, 1847. I have already mentioned some incidents that took place on the plains; I may mention some more hereafter. Now we felt good and happy with the idea of leaving our persecutors a thousand miles behind. Now the Salt Lake Valley had a beautiful rich soil and well supplied with good water. We went to work under the wise counsel of President Young and The Twelve Apostles, although they had returned to the States for their families, and I believe we did our best, generally speaking.
Finally the crickets came so thick it made the earth black in places and it did look like they would take what little we had growing which looked nice and flourishing. Now this was another trial although my faith did not fail one particle, but felt very solemn on the occasion our provisions beginning to give out. My family went several months without a satisfying meal of victuals. I went sometimes a mile up Jordan to a patch of wild roses to get the berries to eat which I would eat as rapidly as a hog, stems and all. I shot hawks and crows and they ate well. I would go and search the mire holes and find cattle dead and fleece off what meat I could and eat it. We used wolf meat, which I thought was good. I made some wooden spades to dig seagoes with, but we could not supply our wants.
We had to exert ourselves to get something to eat. I would take a grubbing-hoe and a sack and start by sunrise in the morning and go, I thought six miles before coming to where the thistle roots grew, and in time to get home I would have a bushel and sometimes more thistle roots. And we would eat them raw. I would dig until I grew weak and faint and sit down and eat a root, and then begin again. I continued this until the roots began to fail; I then turned my attention to making horn combs out of horns. I got two five gallon kegs and a sack and threw it across the saddle and away I went peddling combs for buttermilk and clabber among those who were out with their stock for the milk. I continued this until I heard Capt. James Brown had bought out a mountaineer of a large herd of cattle some sixty (40—Ogden) miles north of the city. I went there and bought a horse-load of cheese which we ate without bread or meat.
Now everything did look gloomy, our provisions giving out and the crickets eating up what little we had growing, and we a thousand miles away from supplies. When Sunday came we had meeting. Apostle Rich stood in an open wagon and preached out-of-doors. It was a beautiful day and a very solemn one too. While preaching he says, “Brethren, we do not want you to part with your wagons and teams for we might need them,” (intimating that he did not know but we might have to leave).
That increased my solemnity. At that instant I heard the voice of fowls flying over head that I was not acquainted with. I looked up and saw a flock of seven gulls. In a few minutes there was another larger flock passed over. They came faster and more of them until the heavens were darkened with them and lit down in the valley till the earth was black with them; and they would eat crickets and throw them up again and fill themselves again and right away throw them up again. A little before sundown they left for Salt Lake, for they roosted on a sandbar; a little after the sunrise in the morning they came back again and continued that course until they had devoured the crickets and then left sine die and never returned. I guess this circumstance changed our feeling considerable for the better.