On April 26-7 they camped on the point of the mouth of the Yellowstone, making reconnaisance for the establishing of a future fort at the junction. We, of this date can hardly grasp the condition there and then existing with regard to wild life! Both Lewis and Clark daily make reference to the enormous herds of buffalo, elk, antelope, deer, beaver, wolves,—and of bird life they tell of the eagles, myriads of geese and ducks, cranes, brant, swans, in the river and all over the adjoining prairies—geese feeding amongst the animal herds, on the rich grasses of early spring time. Quoting from one of Lewis's entries in his journal: — "The whole face of the country was covered with herds of buffalo, elk and antelope — the buffalo and elk so gentle that we pass near them while they feed, without exciting any alarm among them; and when we attract their attention, they approach us more nearly to discover what we are—and in some instances pursue us a considerable distance." They shot many beavers while they swam in the river — always every trap set evenings held its fat beaver in the morning. Lewis's journal entry tells of seeing a tree "nearly three feet" in diameter that had been cut down by beavers. On April 30th Clark hunted along shore, taking with him Charbono and the mother and babe —they made 24 miles; this indicates that the little woman was strong of head and heart, to carry a child that distance! May 5th both tell of the 'Immence numbers of buffalo, elk, deer and goats, wolves and antelope'—Clark shot a grizzly bear which took ten bullets to kill—said 'it is the biggest animal I ever saw' and he measured it—8ft. 7� inches—5 ft. 10� inches around breast; 1 foot 11 inches around middle of forearm—3ft. 11 inches around neck—his talons 4� inches long—was in good order and estimated by Clark to weigh 500 pounds, and by Lewis at 600 lbs. By the 13 May they were above Milk River's mouth where the water was becoming clearer—but heavy winds held them back; Charbono, the half-breed had been put in charge of one of the pirogues containing most valued instruments, food and trade goods; unused to the job, he failed to handle properly, and the boat was swamped—nearly lost —and before it could be got to shore, was filled almost to sinking. The accident was in plain sight of Lewis on shore, but too far to render aid; he was so badly alarmed that he took a big 'dram' to steady his nerves; much valuable packages of books and papers, maps, etc., floated away during the catastrophy in midstream,—but these were recovered not by the man, nor Clark or Lewis,—but by the 'Squar' as Clark spelled it,—Sacajawea. With the loss of these, Lewis was ready to abandon the voyage—does not say how they were saved,—but Clark is clear about it—it was the first step in her ladder of fame! We begin to discover why this dusky captive—stolen—sold—bought by Charbono to serve as his slave and squaw—why—she is an important member of a great national expedition of perilous adventure—of green men going into a strange and forbidding—AND dangerous land! It was at this camp that word was brought in by one of the men that he had seen a large brown (grizzly) bear, and six of the hunters were sent out to kill him. He was soon located. Four of them with their guns loaded and cocked advanced on his lair and at a given sign, all four fired into the brute. Two men held back to meet any charge in case the four bullets failed to bring him down. As the big fellow rose up, roared and charged on his assailants, the two men acting as rear-guard took careful aim and plugged him with the two extra shots; but instead of yielding to the six bullets in him now, the bear, with savage growls, started after the men. None having had time to reload, they all started to run for camp and help. The four gained safety; but the two last took a different direction, with the bear gaining on them at every step; as they raced to the river; one of them got into a thick brushy wood, and the other jumped from the 20 foot high river bank, into the water—and the bear did likewise, but before quite in reach of his man, the other hunters had time to reload their guns and placed a lucky shot in the head of the enraged pursuer. Thereafter the big grizzlies were given a wide berth by the Captains as well as by the hunters; there was always plenty of other game to be had without risk, including bears of the black breed. In Lewis' journal entry of the 20 May, he has come to recognize the Indian woman's worth —he names a river which empties into the Musselshell, Sah-ca-ger-we-ah, in her honor—"Bird Woman's river, after our interpreter the Snake woman." The Missouri is becoming narrower and of swift water—higher hills and rough, and their progress is mostly by the tow line. On the 25th they killed a couple of mountain sheep or big horns— river crooked and fast—use the tow-line most of the time—game getting scarce—few buffalo—ice on water vessels in camp and along river's edge. The entry of May 28 tells better than any of prior date,—just what they had to contend with, and Lewis is quoted at length: "This morning we set forward at an early hour; the weather dark and cloudy, the are (air) smokey, had a few drops of rain; we employed the chord generally to which we also gave the assistance of the pole at the riffles, and rocky points; these are as numerous and many of them much worse than those we passed yesterday; around those points the water drives with great force, and we are obliged in many instances to steer our vessels through appertures formed by the points of large sharp rocks which reach a few inches above the surface of the water, here should our chord give way the bough (bow) is instantly driven outwards by the stream and the vessel thrown on her side on the rocks where she must inevitably overset and perhaps be dashed to pieces; our ropes are but slender, all of them except one being made of Elk's skin and much woarn, frequently wet and exposed to heat of the weather are weak and rotten; they have given way several times in the course of the day ;—with every precaution we can take it is with much labor and risk—that we are enabled to get around these points." At the mouth of Marias they could not determine which was the main river and were delayed two days exploring each valley for some miles up, finally to determine on the southern branch,—Lewis leading with a few of the men—Clark to follow with the party—Sacajawea, very sick, Clark says he 'bled' her with much improvement in her condition; here too, they made caches (2) and buried: "one keg each and 2 canisters of powder—with lead—2 axes, augers, planes, 1 keg of flour 2 kegs of pork 2 of parched meal, 1 of salt, files, chisels, 2 musquits, tin cups, howel, 3 bear skins, beaver skins and horns (bighorn), clothes, beaver traps and blacksmith tools." Next day, the 12th, Clark and the rest of the party left to follow Lewis —plenty game here. All the party except Lewis and Sacajawea, held that the south branch was the wrong one and that they should have taken the northern, or Marias river. Clark has charge of the boats and men—says the "enterpreter's wife verry sick, so much so that I moved her into the back part of our covered Perogue which is cool, her own situation being verry hot in the bottom of the Perouge exposed to the sun."

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