and-mile Island. The beaver were basking
in great numbers along the shore; there were also some young wild geese
and ducks. The mosquitoes were very troublesome during the day, but
after sunset the weather became cool and they disappeared."

Three-thousand-mile Island was so named by the explorers, when they
ascended these streams, because it was at a point exactly three thousand
miles from the mouth of the Missouri. But no such island exists now; it
has probably been worn away by the swift-rushing current of the river.
The route of Captain Clark and his party, up to this time had been a few
miles west of Bannock City, Montana. As the captain was now to proceed
by land to the Yellowstone, again leaving the canoe party, it is well to
recall the fact that his route from the Three Forks of the Missouri to
the Yellowstone follows pretty nearly the present line of the railroad
from Gallatin City to Livingston, by the way of Bozeman Pass. Of this
route the journal says:--

"Throughout the whole, game was very abundant. They procured deer in
the low grounds; beaver and otter were seen in Gallatin River, and elk,
wolves, eagles, hawks, crows, and geese at different parts of the route.
The plain was intersected by several great roads leading to a gap in the
mountains, about twenty miles distant, in a direction E.N.E.; but the
Indian woman, who was acquainted with the country, recommended a gap
more to the southward. This course Captain Clark determined to pursue."

Let us pause here to pay a little tribute to the memory of "the Indian
woman," Sacajawea. She showed that she was very observant, had a good
memory, and was plucky and determined when in trouble. She was the guide
of the exploring party when she was in a region of country, as here,
with which she was familiar. She remembered localities which she had
not seen since her childhood. When their pirogue was upset by the
carelessness of her husband, it was she who saved the goods and helped
to right the boat. And, with her helpless infant clinging to her, she
rode with the men, guiding them with unerring skill through the mountain
fastnesses and lonely passes which the white men saw for the first time
when their salient features were pointed out to them by the intelligent
and faithful Sacajawea. The Indian woman has long since departed to the
Happy Hunting-Grounds of her fathers; only her name and story remain
to us who follow the footsteps of the brave pioneers of the west