"But don't think," he added, "that I'm not game to go on into the Bitter Roots, if you say so. I'm promising you she's rough, up in there. The trail they took was a fright, and I don't see how they made it. It ran to where this range angles into the corner of the Bitter Roots, and crossed there. They crossed another pass, too, and that makes three passes, from here. They got here July 10th, and three days later at last they hit the Lolo Creek trail, over the Lolo Pass--the way old Chief Joseph came east when he went on the war trail; he fought Gibbon in the battle of the Big Hole, above here." Rob sighed. "Well, it only took Lewis and Clark a couple of months to get through. But still, we've only got a couple of weeks." "What do you say, John? Shall we go south to the head with Billy?" Uncle Dick did not decide it alone. "Vote yes, in the circumstances," said John. "Hate to quit her, though!" "You, Jess?" "Oh, all right, I'll haul off if the rest do. We'll get to fish some, won't we?" "All you want. The best trout and grayling fishing there is left anywhere." "It's a vote, Uncle Dick!" said Rob. "This is our head camp on this leg of the trip." "I think that's wise," said Uncle Dick. "But before we leave here I want you to have a last look at the map." They spread it open in the firelight. "This point is where Clark came and got the canoes the next year, 1806. They came back over the Lolo, but took a short cut, east of this mountain range, forty miles east of the other trail. They came over the Gibbon Pass--which ought to be called Clark's Pass and isn't--and headed southeast, the Indian girl being of use again now. They came down Grasshopper Creek, walking over millions of dollars of gold gravel, and found their canoes, not over a few hundred yards from where we sit, like enough. "Then Clark and his men got in the boats and headed home. Sacagawea showed them the trail up the Gallatin, over the Bozeman Pass, to the Yellowstone. And they went down that to its mouth. "And now, one last touch to show what nerve those captains really had. Either could cut loose. "Near what is now Missoula, on the Bitter Root--which Lewis called Clark's Fork, after Clark, just as Clark named his Salmon River tributary after Lewis--Lewis took ten men and headed across lots for the Great Falls and then for the head of the Marias River! "Surely, they began to scatter. Clark had left twenty men, the Indian girl and her baby, and they had fifty horses. At this place here, where we are in camp, Clark split his party again, some going down in the boats, some on horseback, but all traveling free and happy. They got here July 10th, and three days later were at the Three Forks, both parties, only one hour apart! They certainly had good luck in getting together.