swam halfway across the river. This bear weighed nearly 600 pounds and measured eight and a half-feet tall.

The next day, when a grizzly swam across the river right in front of their boats, they let it go. "The curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with respect to this animal," Lewis said. They now understood the Indians' respect for the "white bear." They met several more over the next weeks. One bear ran after two hunters. When they jumped off a 20-foot bluff into the river, the bear jumped right in after them and almost caught one of the men before it was shot by another hunter on shore.

One day, the captains walked together along the shore, making an exception to their policy that one of them should always be with the boats. They came to regret it. Charbonneau was steering one of the pirogues, and a strong gust of wind nearly turned the boat over. The captains were horrified. The pirogue contained their priceless journals and medicines and supplies that they couldn't live without. Several people in the boat could not swim, including little Pomp. Lewis nearly tore his coat off and jumped into the icy, wild waters. Realizing he could never reach the boat in time, he and Clark shot their guns to get the attention of those on board and shouted instructions to them.

Charbonneau was in a state of panic, crying out and waving his hands in the air. One of the men on board, Pierre Cruzatte, threatened to shoot him if he didn't pay attention to the rudder and right the boat. The sound of the captains’ shots brought Charbonneau to his senses and he turned back to his job. Cruzatte and two others grabbed kettles and bailed the water out of the pirogue as quickly as they could. Everyone was shouting. It was a desperate moment. In the middle of it all, Sacagawea stayed calm. Though the boat had filled to its rim with water and nearly capsized, the young mother had the presence of mind to reach into the water and retrieve precious medicines and papers that were floating away.

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Clark was fond of Sacagawea, whom he called Janey. After this incident, Lewis wrote of her courage and steadiness. They were less impressed with Charbonneau! Sacagawea had proved to be a fortunate addition to the Corps. Her knowledge of wild plants was also helpful. She gathered prairie turnips, wild licorice, and berries to add to the meat the hunters brought in for dinner. The captains named a river after their Shoshone friend.

Clark escaped another near-disaster when he was almost bitten by a rattlesnake as he walked along the shore. That night there was a terrific storm. The man on guard woke the captains when he saw that the tree next to their tipi was leaning dangerously in the wind. The captains, York, Charbonneau, and Sacagawea quickly broke down the tipi and moved it. Minutes later the tree crashed down on the place where the tipi had been. "We should have been crushed to atoms," Lewis said.

One day Seaman swam out in the river to fetch a beaver that had been shot by a hunter. The beaver was still alive and bit Seaman in the leg. As Lewis bandaged up the terrible wound, he wondered if his dog would survive, but within weeks Seaman was well enough to save the explorers’ lives. One night as they slept, a