We were obliged to go on some time after dark, not being able to find a spot large enough to encamp on; but at length, about two miles above a small island in the middle of the river, we met with a place on the left side, where we procured plenty of light wood and pitch pine.

This extraordinary range of rocks we called the Gates of the Rocky Mountains." Some of Captain Clark's men, engaged in hunting, gave the alarm to roving bands of Shoshonee Indians, hunting in that vicinity.

The noise of their guns attracted the attention of the Indians, who, having set fire to the grass as a warning to their comrades, fled to the mountains.
The whole country soon appeared to have taken fright, and great clouds of smoke were observed in all directions.

Falling into an old Indian trail, Captain Clark waited, with his weary and footsore men, for the rest of the party to come up with them.
The explorers had now passed south, between the Big Belt range of mountains on the cast and the main chain of the Rocky Mountains on the west.

Meagher County, Montana, now lies on the cast of their trail, and on the west side of that route is the county of Lewis and Clark.