finger in the _Journal_. "Two days later they got into game all right,
for Drewyer killed six deer that day himself, and another killed one, so
they had meat in camp.

"They made the Nemaha by July 14th, and I think that was almost the
first time they got sight of elk. Clark fired at one that day, but
didn't get him. That was where he first wrote his name and date on a
rock--he says the rock 'jucted out over the water.' I think that was
near the mouth, on the banks of the Nishnabotna River, but I don't
suppose a fellow could find it now, do you?"

"No. It never has been reported, like the two Boone signatures in
Kentucky," replied Uncle Dick. "He only wrote his name twice--once up in
Montana. But now, think how this new sort of country struck them.
Patrick Gass says, 'This is the most open country I ever saw, almost one
continued prairie.' What are you writing down, Jesse?"

"'Musquitors verry troublesome,'" grinned Jesse, watching a big one on
his wrist. "I'll bet they were awful."

"And the men all had 'tumers and boils,' in spite of their 'verry high
sperrits,'" broke in John, from the _Journal_. "And they gave Alexander
Willard a hundred lashes and expelled him from the enlisted roll, for
sleeping on sentinel post--which he had coming to him. But all the same,
the _Journal_ says that this party was healthier than any party of like
size 'in any other Situation.' His main worry was these pesky
'musquitors.' He killed a deer, but they were so bad he found it
'Painfull to continue a Moment Still'!

"Here's something for you, Jesse!" he added, laughing. "One day in a
'fiew minits Cought 3 verry large Cat fish, one nearly white, a quort of
Oile came out of the Surpolous fat of one of those fish.' And all the
time they are mentioning turkeys and geese and beaver--isn't it funny
that all those creatures then lived in the same place? On August 2d,
Drewyer and Colter, two of the hunters, brought in the horses loaded
with elk meat. But that was just above the Platte, nearer Council
Bluffs."

"One thing don't forget," said Uncle Dick at this time. "All that
hunting was incidental to those men. About the biggest part of their
business was to get in touch with the Indian tribes and make friends
with them. You'll see, they stuck around the mouth of the Platte quite a
while, sending out word, to get the Indians in. The same day Drewyer and
Colter got the elk the men brought in a 'Mr. Fairfong,' an interpreter,
who had some