th of this river. It still is six hundred yards wide, with its
current 'verry rapid roleing over Sands.'

"Two voyagers of the Lewis and Clark expedition had wintered here before
that time, trapping--the beaver were so thick. Imagine yourself not far
up the river and shooting at an elk four times, as Will Clark did--then
not getting him. Imagine yourself along with that summer fishing party
along this little old river, and getting upward of eight hundred fish,
seventy-nine pike, and four hundred and ninety cats; and again three
hundred and eighteen 'silver fish'--I wonder, now, if that really could
have been the croppy? Lord! boy--what a time they had, strolling,
hunting, fishing, exploring new lands, visiting Indians, having the time
of their lives!"

"Let's be off," suggested Rob. And soon they were plugging along up the
great river, threading their way among the countless bars and shoals.

"I can see the full boats coming down the Platte!" said Jesse, shading
his eyes, "hide canoes, full of beaver bales, that float light! And
there are the _voyageurs_, all with whiskers and long rifles and
knives."

"Yes," said Uncle Dick, gravely. "And here are our men, tall, in uniform
coats and buckskin leggings. See now"--and he reached for John's
volume--"they let off the deserter, Moses Reed, very light. He only had
to run the gantlet of the entire party four times--each man with nine
switches--and get dropped from the rolls of the Volunteers!

"And here is where Captain Lewis, experimenting with some strange water
he had found--with some cobalt and 'isonglass' in it--got very ill from
it. His friend Clark says 'Copperas and Alum is verry pisen.'"

"But when did they first find the buffalo?" demanded Jesse, fingering
once more the little rifle which always lay near him in the boat. "Gee!
now, I'd like to kill a buffalo!"

"All in due time, all in due time, Jess!" his leader replied. "My, but
you are bloodthirsty! Wait now till August 23d, above Sioux City. You
are Captain William Clark, with your elk-hide notebook inside your shirt
front, and you have gone ashore and have killed a fat buck. And when you
get back to the boat J. Fields comes in and says he has killed a
buffalo, in the plain ahead; and Lewis takes twelve men and has the
buffalo brought to the boat at the next bend; so you just make no fuss
over that first buffalo, and set it down in your elk-hide book. And that
same day two elk swam across the river ahead o