"'The Countrey on each Side the river is fine, interspursed with Praries, on which immence herds of Deer is seen. On the banks of the river we observe number of Deer watering and feeding on the young willow, Several killed to-day.... The Praries come within a Short distance of the river on each Side, which contains in addition to Plumbs Raspberries &c, and quantities of wild apples, great numb{rs} of Deer are seen feeding in the young willows and Earbarge on the Banks and on the Sand bars in the river.'" "I didn't know that deer liked willow leaves," said John. "I didn't, either, but here it is. And that was June 26th, when the grass was up. I've even known some naturalists to say that deer don't eat grass. We know they do. "But what we want to get here is the idea that now the expedition was just coming out of the hills and woods into the edge of the Prairies. Across these Prairies and the Plains came big river valleys that led out West toward the Rockies. If all that had been hills and timber, no road ever would have got through. It was the big waterways that made the roads into all the wilderness; we certainly learned that up in the Far North, didn't we? "So here was their crossroads of the waters, at old Independence, which now is Kansas City. Not much here, but a natural place for the Gate to the West. "Clark had a good real-estate eye. He says: "'The Countrey about the mouth of this river is verry fine on each Side as well as north of the Missourie. A high Clift on the upper Side of the Kanses 1/2 a mile up, below the Kanses the hills is about 1-1/2 Miles from the point on the North Side of the Missourie the Hills or high lands is Several Miles back.... The high lands come to the river Kansas on the upper Side at about 1/2 a mile, in full view, & a butifull place for a fort, good landing place.' "He couldn't spell much, or put in his punctuation marks, but he certainly had a practical eye. And I reckon the first beginnings of the city were right then, for the _Journal_ says, 'Completed a strong redoubt or brestwork from one side to the other, of logs and Bushes Six feet high.' Yes, I suppose that was the first white building here at the Gate. "It's pretty hard to find any new part of the world to-day. Yonder runs the Kaw, leading to the Santa Fe Trail--and I'll bet there's a thousand motor cars going west right now, a hundred times as many cars each day as there used to be wagons in a year!" He closed his book for the time. "Maybe that's what Uncle Dick wanted us to get in our heads!" said he. "Some country!" said Jesse; and both John and Rob agreed. When their leader returned a little later in the evening, the boys told him what they had been doing. "Fine!" he said. "Fine! Well, I've just telegraphed home that we're all right and that we're off for the Platte to-morrow, early." "That's another old road to the Rockies," said Rob.