"In a little railway pamphlet put out by the Northern Pacific Railway it is stated that on Sunday, February 16, 1913--one hundred and seventy years after Verendrye got back that far east--a school girl playing with some others at the top of a hill scraped the dirt from the end of a plate, which then was exposed about an inch above the ground. She pulled it out. The story said it looked like a range-stove lining. It was eight and a half inches long by six and a half inches wide and an eighth of an inch in thickness. Well, it was discovered to be the old Verendrye lead plate--that's all!" "That's a most extraordinary thing!" said Rob. "Well, anyhow, it shows the value of leaving exploring records. So you couldn't blame William Clark for writing his name at least twice on the rocks." "No, the story of the Verendrye plate is, I think, one of the most curious things I have ever read in regard to early Western history. You never can tell about such things. Well, in any case Verendrye, the first white man who ever saw the Shining Mountains, died in 1749. That was fifty-five years before Lewis and Clark started up the river. "There is not a hundred miles, or ten miles, or one mile, along all these shores which has not historical value if you and I only knew the story." "But it's a long, long way up to the Mandans still," began John once more. His Uncle Dick gayly chided him. "It'll not be so long--only a little over three hundred miles from here." "If only there were the buffalo!" said Jesse. "Yes, if only there were the buffalo, and the antelope and the Indians! I'd give a good deal to have lived in those days, my own self. Good night, Jess. Good night, Rob and Frank." CHAPTER XIV IN DAYS OF OLD The young travelers each night made their beds carefully, for they long since had learned that unless a man sleeps well he cannot enjoy the next day's work. It has been noted that they had three buffalo robes for part of their bedding, one each for Uncle Dick and Rob, while John and Jesse shared one between them. In the morning Uncle Dick noted that the latter two boys had their robe spread down with the hair side up. "I suppose you did that to get more of a mattress?" he said. "But suppose you wanted to keep warm in really cold weather, in a snowstorm, say. Which side of the robe would you wear outside?" "Why, the smooth side, of course!" replied Jesse, who was rolling the robe. "That'd have the warm fur next to you, so you'd be warmer that way." "No, there's where you are wrong," said his uncle. "The old-timers always slept with the hair outside, and the Indians wore their robes that way. 'Buffalo know how to wear his hide!' is the way an Indian put it. And, you see, a buffalo always did wear his hair outside! Next to the musk ox, he was the hardiest animal on this continent and could stand the most cold. No blizzards on these plains ever troubled him. He could get feed when other animals starved."