"I'd like them, too, to get a general idea of the old gold fields. We're right in the heart of those tremendous placers that Lewis and Clark never dreamed about. I'd like them to know, on the ground, not on the map, how the old road agents' trail ran, between Bannack and Virginia City. I'd like them to get a true idea of how Lewis and Clark worked out their way, over the Divide. Lastly, I'd like them to see where the true Missouri heads south and leaves the real Lewis and Clark trail. "Now, what's the best point to head for, Billy, for a sort of central camp? I don't think we can do more than go to the summit, this trip. What do you say?" "Well, sir, I'd say the Shoshoni Cove, where they left their canoes and took horses, would be about the most central point for that. That'll bring us to the last forks--what they call the Two Forks." "But how about the Beaverhead Rock?" "We ought to see that," said Rob, at the time. "That's as famous as a landmark as almost anything on the whole river." "We can get in there easy enough and get out," said Billy. "It's just a question of time on the trail. Taking it easy, give us a week, ten days, on the way to the Cove, taking in the Rock for one camp. It's not half as far by land as it is by water." "What do you say, boys? Shall we travel by rail or pack train now?" With one shout they all voted for the pack train. "We couldn't get along without Billy now, anyhow," said Jesse, "because he knows the _Journal_ as well as we do, and he knows the country better." "Thank you, son. Well, I guess old Sleepy won't die before we get there, though he pretends he can hardly go. Say we get back into the side creeks a little and pick up a mess of fish now and then, and make the Beaverhead a couple of camps later? How'd that be?" "That's all right, I think," said Rob. "I'd like to get a look at the main river, to see why the names change on it so. First it's the main Missouri; then they conclude to call it the Jefferson--only because the other two forks spread so wide there. Then it runs along all right, and all at once they call it the Beaverhead. And before it gets used to that name they change it to Red River for no reason at all, or because it heads south and runs near a painted butte. Yet it is one continuous river all the way." "The real way to name a river," said Billy, sagely, "is after you know all about it. You got to remember that Lewis and Clark saw this for the first time. By the time we make the Beaverhead Rock, we'll be willing to say they had a hard job. People could get lost in these hills even now, if they stepped off the road." "All set for the Beaverhead Rock!" said Uncle Dick, decisively.