Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-27

would prove their salvation time and again, and
that to the Bird Woman, more than all others,
they would owe their chance to sail down the
broad Columbia to the Pacific, carving their
names in the marble of history. When Char
bonneau hired as an interpreter, announced
that he meant to take his wife, Lewis and
Clark feared that she could not stand the
journey, so frail she seemed, and with a mite
of baby pulling at her breasts. Yet when
steel-framed frontierSmen sank down in utter
exhaustion it was to be Sacajawea that would
carry on.
The plains were thick with buffalo and elk,
and great fish leaped high above the water as
the pathfinderS set forth again, eager for sight
of the Shining Mountains that lay before them.
Rowing sometimes, but polling and towing for
the most part, they passed the Bad Lands, went
by the mouth of the Yellowstone, and came to
a river that they called the Milk because of its
white flow. With the rare good fortune that
was to mark the expedition, not an Indian was
seen, but grizzly bears prevented anything ap-
preaching boredom
HUNTERS walking the banks, took wild dives
into the river to escape the ferocious beasts
The monsters attacked the night camps and
even swan out to charge the boats, and such
was their strength that one huge brute had
eight balls through his body before falling dead
at Lewis very feet Storms were no less a
menace, fiinging the little canoes like chips
They were now in a land that not even the
most daring trapper had ever visited and each
new day increased their difficulties The many
forks of the river the size of the tributary
streams, brought doubts as to their source and
forced wearisome, dangerous explorations. Port
ages became more and more frequent, and as
the men toiled over rocky stretches their way
was thick with Kissing striking rattlesnakes
In one crowded day Lewis was charged by buff
falo bulls in the forenoon, chased by grizzly
in the afternoon, only escaping by leap into
the river, and then walked the next morning to
find RATHER coiled at his head
Not until Lewis. scouting alone, came to the
Great Falls on June IS was he certain that
they had held to the true Missouri. A great
cheer must have burst from the voyageurs as
they saw the long sweep of majestic cascades
but their admiration was short-lived; for q
17-mile portage had to be made Rude frames,
mounted on wheels cut from tree trunks, eased
the burden of the canoes in some degree but
each of the ID days was still horror of drudg-
cry and suffering
Even as the naked, sweating men tainted
under burning sun, a sudden storm would
scourge them with hailstones the prickly pears
tore their feet into bleeding ribbons: every
thlcket seemed to vomit roaring grizzlies and
as they trudged dry creek bed some cloud
burst would turn it into mill race Once
Sacajawea, encountered by her baby was saved
from death by Clark's strong hand the water
tearing at her waist as he dragged her To a
higher shelf.
Building additional canoes the journey was
resumed, every mile a fiercer fight against
rocks and whirlpoOlS; on through the Gates of
the Rockies, that cyclopean gorge where the
Missouri tears its way through the mountain
wall, pole and towline now in constant use
The men at the ropes could not walk the banks.
covered by dense thickets, and stumbled along
In the water, slipping falling
All were more dead than alive when they
reached the Three Forks, where the jefferson
Madison and Gallatin $50 named by Lewis and