ir canoes, not over a few hundred yards from where we sit, like
enough.

"Then Clark and his men got in the boats and headed home. Sacagawea
showed them the trail up the Gallatin, over the Bozeman Pass, to the
Yellowstone. And they went down that to its mouth.

"And now, one last touch to show what nerve those captains really had.
Either could cut loose.

"Near what is now Missoula, on the Bitter Root--which Lewis called
Clark's Fork, after Clark, just as Clark named his Salmon River
tributary after Lewis--Lewis took ten men and headed across lots for
the Great Falls and then for the head of the Marias River!

"Surely, they began to scatter. Clark had left twenty men, the Indian
girl and her baby, and they had fifty horses. At this place here, where
we are in camp, Clark split his party again, some going down in the
boats, some on horseback, but all traveling free and happy. They got
here July 10th, and three days later were at the Three Forks, both
parties, only one hour apart! They certainly had good luck in getting
together.

"On that same day, Sergeant Ordway took six boats and nine men and
started down the Missouri to meet Lewis at the Great Falls, or the mouth
of the Marias. They made it down all right, and that is all we can say,
for no record exists of that run downstream.

"Now, get all this straight in your heads and see how they had
scattered, in that wild, unknown country, part in boats, part on
shore--the riskiest way to travel. All the sergeants are captains now.
We have four different companies.

"Gass is at the Great Falls, where Lewis split his party. Ordway is on
his way down the river from the Three Forks to the Falls. Clark is with
the horses now, headed east for the Yellowstone--which not a soul in
that party knew a thing about, except the Indian girl, who insisted they
would come out on the Yellowstone. And on that river the Clark party
divided once more, part going in boats and part on horseback!

"Now figure five parties out of thirty-one men. Look at your map,
remembering that the two land parties were in country they had never
seen before. Yet they plan to meet at the mouth of the Yellowstone, over
twelve hundred miles from where we are sitting here! That's traveling!
That's exploring! And their story of it all is as plain and simple and
modest as though children had done it. There's nothing like it in all
the world."

He ceased to speak. The little circle fell silent.

"Go on, go