1 8 The Grizzly Bear 



encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear. 

 There is no chance of killing them by a single shot unless 

 the ball goes through the brain, and this is very difficult 

 on account of two large muscles which cover the side of 

 the forehead and the sharp projection of the centre of 

 the frontal bone, which is also thick." 



May 14, 1805. "Toward evening the men in the 

 hindmost canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the 

 open grounds about three hundred paces from the river. 

 Six of them, all good hunters, immediately went to attack 

 him, and concealing themselves by a small eminence, came 

 unperceived within forty paces of him. Four of the hunters 

 now fired and each lodged a ball in his body, two of them 

 directly through the lungs. The furious animal sprang 

 up and ran open-mouthed upon them. As he came near, 

 the two hunters who had reserved their fire gave him two 

 wounds, one of which, breaking his shoulder, retarded his 

 motion for a moment; but before they could reload he 

 was so near that they were obliged to run to the river, and 

 before they reached it he had almost overtaken them. 

 Two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated, and 

 concealing themselves in the willows, fired as fast as each 

 could reload. They struck him several times, but instead 

 of weakening the monster, each shot seemed only to direct 

 him toward the hunter; till at last he pursued two of them 

 so closely that they threw aside their guns and pouches 

 and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet 

 into the river. The bear sprang after them, and was within 

 a few feet of the hindmost when one of the hunters on 

 shore shot him in the head and finally killed him. They 

 dragged him to the shore and found that eight balls had 



