Spent the forenoon with Elder Pratt in taking observations to ascertain
the height of the temple block above the Utah outlet which he found to
be sixty-five feet. The altitude one mile up the creek above the temple
block is 214 feet and the altitude of the temple block above the level
of the sea is 4,300 feet. The latitude 40° 45' 50". The blacksmiths are
very busy shoeing oxen and there is prospect that the ox teams will
start back on Monday or Tuesday. The soldiers are getting dissatisfied
at being kept here so long from their families and yesterday several of
them left the camp secretly to go to Winter Quarters and this morning
others are gone, but it is probable that President Young knows nothing
of it yet although about a dozen are already gone and others are
preparing to follow them. On Tuesday President Young laid a foundation
for four houses; Elder Kimball four, Colonel Markham one, Dr. Richards
one, and Lorenzo Young two, and today Dr. Richards has laid the
foundation of another, George A. Smith two and Wilford Woodruff two,
making a total of seventeen houses mostly fourteen feet wide and from
twelve to seventeen long. Elder Kimball has his house four logs high.