t he was rich if he got ten cents.
A buffalo robe averaged three dollars; a beaver pelt, four dollars; an
otter, three dollars. Think of what they bring now! Well, the demand
combs the country, that's all.

"But in 1836 beaver slumped--because that was the year the silk hat was
invented. Did you know that? And in 1883 the buffalo robes ended. I'd
say that 1850 really was about the end of the big days of the early fur
trade--what we call the upper-river trade."

Rob put his hand down over the map. "And here it was," said he, "in this
country west of here, up the Yellowstone, up the Missouri, all over and
in between!"

"Quite right, yes," his companion nodded. "Of all the days of romance
and adventure in the Far West, those were the times and this was the
place--from here west, up the great waterway and its branches.

"No one can estimate the value of the Missouri River to the United
States. It made more history for us than the Mississippi itself. It made
our first maps--the fur trade did that. It led us across and got us
Oregon. It led us to the placers which settled Montana. It took the
first horses and wagons and plows into the upper country in its day, as
well as the first rifles and steel traps. It brought us into war with
the Indians, and helped us win the war. It carried our hunters up to the
buffalo, and carried all the buffalo down, off from the face of the
earth. And it rolls and boils and tumbles on its way now as it did when
the great bateaux swept down its flood, over a hundred miles a day,
loaded with robes and furs."

"I wish we could see it all!" grumbled Jesse, again.

"You can see it all now, Jess," said his uncle, "better than you could
if you plugged up its stream without looking at a map or book. And even
if you did look at both, you've got to see the many different periods
the old Missouri has had in its history, and balance one against the
other.

"Dates are not of so much importance, but reasons for great changes are
important. If I had to select just one date in Western history, do you
know what that would be?"

"Eighteen hundred and four, when our men started up with the flag!" said
Rob.

Uncle Dick shook his head.

"Eighteen hundred and six, when they got back," ventured Jesse.

"No."

"Eighteen hundred and forty-eight, when they found gold in California!"
said John.

"No! Great years, yes, and the discovery of gold was a great event in
changing all the country. But to the man