r
would meet at all!

"But they did hope. And they did meet. And if you put it to me as an
engineer, young gentlemen, I shall say that was the most extraordinary
instance of going through unknown country on workmanlike basis I ever
heard of in all my life! Nor do I think all the world could produce its
like."

They sat in wondering silence for a time, marveling at the perfect
ability shown by these young army officers in this formerly wild and
unknown country. Uncle Dick closed the pages of his _Journal_, which he
had been following through rapidly, and seemed inclined to talk no
further.

"You tell it, Billy!" said Jesse, turning to Billy Williams, who had
been an attentive listener on the opposite side of the table.

"You mean that I shall bring up the Clark story?"

The boys assented to this.

Billy went on, his finger now on the map in turn.

"Take Clark along in here on the Gallatin, near this ranch, say July
15th, about one month ahead of our date now. He is going east with his
party. He has got the Indian girl and some horses and some good men. All
right. On July 15th he starts across the Divide, heading for the
Yellowstone Valley.

"Naturally, he found that plumb easy. He struck into one of the creeks
that run down into the Yellowstone. It was only nine miles down that to
the Yellowstone River itself, and they hit that just a mile below where
it comes out of the Rockies from up yonder in Yellowstone Park, where we
all were only yesterday.

"Clark had the easiest end of it, in some ways. He said he had to go
only forty-eight miles from the Three Forks to hit the Yellowstone. If
he had poled a canoe up the Gallatin, he would not have had to portage
over eighteen miles.

"Those are the distances that Clark estimates, but for once he
underestimates, I don't know why. Wheeler points out that from Three
Forks to Livingston is fifty-four miles, and Clark came down off the
Divide at a place just above Livingston. Anyhow, I'll bet he was glad
when he saw the old Yellowstone Valley. He had horses now, you see, and
he was hitting the trail hard.

"He went down the north side of the Yellowstone, and by July 17th he was
down as far as Big Timber and Boulder River. I suppose they would have
kept on downstream on horseback, but one of their men, Gibson, got
snagged in a fall from his horse, so somewhere near the mouth of the
Stillwater they concluded to make some canoes, so that Gibson could ride
by boat.

"N