14 The Grizzly Bear 



with returning traders and explorers. Edward Umfre- 

 ville, writing in 1790 upon "The Present State of Hudson's 

 Bay," had heard of them. In summing up the fauna of 

 the North and West, he says: "Bears are of three kinds: 

 the black, the red, and the grizzle bear." But he goes no 

 further than to add, in regard to the two latter, that, "their 

 nature is savage and ferocious, their power dangerous, and 

 their haunts to be guarded against." 



Sir Alexander MacKenzie, the explorer, during his 

 second voyage, on May 13, 1795, mentions seeing bear 

 tracks on the banks of the Peace River, some of which 

 were nine inches wide. He says, "The Indians entertain 

 great apprehension of this kind of bear, which is called 

 the grisly bear, and they never venture to attack it except 

 in a party of at least three or four." He never, however, 

 seems to have seen one, nor does he describe it. 



Lewis and Clark, on the other hand, not only entered 

 in their journals full accounts of their various encounters 

 with these animals, but made inquiries about them among 

 the inhabitants of the regions where they were found, and 

 took in them not only the interest of the fur trader and 

 the hunter, but that of the naturalist. Moreover, for 

 nearly fifty years these field notes of theirs were the chief, 

 if not the only, source of information regarding these 

 animals. Here and there, during that period, in the works 

 of scientific writers upon natural history, an original 

 observation, or an authenticated report of such observa- 

 tions, appears. But for the most part everything outside 

 the categories of frank romance or alleged adventure that 

 found its way into print, was an unblushing rehash or an 

 unwarranted elaboration of their statements. 



