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Show 1800] ROUTES. 0F TRAVEL As the arid regions of tke great plains were gained, the advance was checked and the country to the rear was quickly filled. The streams flowing eastward from the Rockies, with the exception of the Missouri, were only navigable during a portion of the year, and as a consequence were unsuitable as lines of travel. The Missouri as the one copious river was the natural highway, therefore, and was ascended by Lewis and Clark in 1804 in their memorable journey to the Pacific. 1 Proceeding to the headwaters by boat, they crossed the Bitter Root Mountains by the northern Nez Perc6 or Lou Lou Trail, one of the most difficult in the country and one which has seldom been followed since. Descending on the west to the Clearwater, they continued by boat down the Snake and Columbia to the sea. Even before Lewis and Clark's expedition, hunters and trappers had penetrated to the Rocky Mountains, but the great distances to be travelled and the forbidding character of the country checked for a considerable time the westward movement of settlers. - At the opening of the last century St. Louis was the starting- point and base of supplies for the Western traders. Later the centre moved west to Franklin, on the Missouri, then to Independence, and finally to Kansas City, where the river turned north. 2 1 Cones, Hist, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. ' Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, I., 32; Inman, Old Santa Ft Trail, 145- trfHt |