In This Way They Resumed Their Journey After Dinner,
And Camped On The Eastern Side Of The River, Opposite The Head Of
Three-Thousand-Mile Island.
The beaver were basking in great numbers
along the shore; there were also some young wild geese and ducks.
The mosquitoes were very troublesome during the day, but after sunset
the weather became cool and they disappeared."
Three-thousand-mile Island was so named by the explorers, when they
ascended these streams, because it was at a point exactly three thousand
miles from the mouth of the Missouri. But no such island exists now;
it has probably been worn away by the swift-rushing current of the river.
The route of Captain Clark and his party, up to this time had been a few
miles west of Bannock City, Montana. As the captain was now to proceed
by land to the Yellowstone, again leaving the canoe party, it is well
to recall the fact that his route from the Three Forks of the Missouri
to the Yellowstone follows pretty nearly the present line of the railroad
from Gallatin City to Livingston, by the way of Bozeman Pass. Of this
route the journal says: -
"Throughout the whole, game was very abundant. They procured deer
in the low grounds; beaver and otter were seen in Gallatin River,
and elk, wolves, eagles, hawks, crows, and geese at different parts
of the route. The plain was intersected by several great roads
leading to a gap in the mountains, about twenty miles distant,
in a direction E.N.E.; but the Indian woman, who was acquainted
with the country, recommended a gap more to the southward.
This course Captain Clark determined to pursue."
Let us pause here to pay a little tribute to the memory of "the
Indian woman," Sacajawea.
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