o Yellowstone Station on the Bozeman
road. Following it out, under Con O'Brien's steady driving, and asking a
hundred questions of Billy en route, they finally swept down late in the
evening into the beautiful valley of the Gallatin. Winding among the
farms, they pulled up at last at Billy Williams's comfortable ranch
house and soon were made at home.

"Here we are, fellows, east of the Three Forks of the Missouri," said
Uncle Dick, when they had gotten out their maps for that evening's
study. "At first, neither Lewis nor Clark followed the Gallatin at all.
As we know, Clark went but a short distance up the Madison. But when the
explorers were going east, as we saw before, Clark came down to the
Shoshoni Cove, at the junction where we made our last camp, over west.
When he struck in here, on the Gallatin, Clark had with him the Indian
girl, Sacagawea. Besides the Indian woman and her child, he had eleven
men and fifty horses. Ordway, as we have seen, had taken nine men and
started downstream with the boats. No one knew this country except the
Indian girl.

"Yes, and she must have been across here before, too," said Billy.
"There are three passes at the head of the East Gallatin--the Bozeman
and the Bridger and the Flathead. The Indian girl told them to take the
one farthest south, which is Bozeman Pass.

"The books say that on July 13th Clark camped just where the town of
Logan is, in the Gallatin Valley. They say he followed southeast from
there and crossed Bozeman Creek near this town. The Indian girl knew
there was a buffalo road there, and they stuck to that. Good authorities
think that they camped, July 14th, near where old Fort Ellis afterward
was located. That's across the East Gallatin. There is an easy pass
there, and there is no doubt at all that the Indian girl led Clark
through that easiest pass, which the Indians would be sure to find when
going between their hunting ranges.

"Of course, old man Bozeman did not come in here until the mining
strikes, 1863 or 1864. He was a freighter and knew this country,
although he didn't know it well enough to keep from getting killed by
the Indians.

"Up the Gallatin, too," went on Billy, "is where they say John Colter
ran after he got away from the Blackfeet. He didn't have any clothes on
to speak of even then--he sure traveled light. But, anyhow, he lived to
discover Yellowstone Park, or part of it, and to tell a lot of stories
which everybody said were lies."