244. Lewis and Clark‘s Explorations
Jefferson soon sent out several expeditions to explore the unknown portions of the continent . The most im - portant of these was the expedition led by two army officers , Meriwether Lewis and William Clark , brother of General George Rogers Clark ( p .116). Leaving St . Louis they slowly ascended the muddy Missouri . They passed the site of the present city of Omaha . They passed the Council Bluffs . The current of the river now became so rapid that the explorers left their boats and traveled along the river ' s bank . They gained the sources of the Missouri , and came to a westward - flowing river . On , on they followed it until they came to the river ' s mouth . A fog hung low over the water . Suddenly it lifted . There before the explorers ' eyes the river " in waves like small mountains roled out in the ocean ." They had traced the Columbia River from its upper course to the Pacific . Captain Gray in the Bos - ton ship Columbia had already entered the mouth of the river . But Lewis and Clark were the first white men to reach it overland .
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