"In June they heard the roaring of a cataract, and Lewis started out afoot to find it. After he had traveled for hours he climbed a cliff and at last looked down upon the cataract. So far as we know he was the first white man who had ever seen it, although thousands see it every year now. The cascades of the Missouri stretch for thirteen miles, with foaming rapids between. It is a great sight."
"Gee, Peck's Falls ain't in it," said Skinny. "Did he find a cave?"
"History fails to mention a cave. Lewis went back and ordered the boats to proceed up the river as far as the first rapids. The question was, how to get around those cascades. They couldn't go up the river, so they had to get the boats around in some way. Their horses had died during the winter. There was nothing to do but drag the boats around eighteen miles. The men went to work and made rough carts, felled trees, cleared away bushes, dug out rocks, leveled off the ground, and pulled, pushed, and struggled on, until at last the work was accomplished and the boats were launched again in the river above the rapids.
"But soon the river became too shallow for the large boat and they had to stop again. Then they cut down trees and made 'dugouts.' They paddled on until finally they came to a most wonderful place. We think that the ravine below Peck's Falls and that at the Basin are grand and beautiful, and so they are, but they found a great canyon, whose walls in places were a thousand feet high.
"Beyond this canyon they could not go in their boats, for they were at the foot of the first range of the Rockies. They had to leave their boats there and climb. But, first, Lewis started out alone to find some Indians for guides.
"The brave man made his way to the top of the ridge and looked down into the valley beyond. In that valley flowed a river, and far up the stream he could see an Indian village. It was the home of the Shoshones. He managed to reach the village, and by offering presents induced some of the Indians to go back with him, bringing horses, and to guide his men across the mountains.
"The trip was a very perilous one, even with guides, and it took them a whole month to cross. Up, up they climbed, so high that they could not find any game to shoot. One by one, the horses died from exhaustion, and the starving men ate the flesh to keep themselves alive.
"After terrible hardships, they finally left the mountains behind and came upon streams which flowed toward the west. Here they rested, secured a new supply of food, built new boats, and then, when all was ready, paddled down the Lewis and Clark rivers into the broad Columbia, which, as you know, pours its waters into the Pacific Ocean. They had crossed the entire country from Pittsburgh to the Pacific, and made the whole trip by water except that terrible journey across the Rocky Mountains.
"It was now November and they were forced to go into camp once more to spend the winter months. In the spring they started on the long journey home again and at last reached Washington, where they told the President about the vast Northwest and what a great country he had purchased from France."
"I'll tell you what let's do," said Benny, after Mr. Norton had finished. "When we start on our trip let's play we are Lewis and Clark 'sploring the country."