248 The Grizzly Bear 



least one of his companions before itself giving up the 

 ghost. The grizzly was their opportunity and they used 

 him nobly. 



But there is abundant testimony remaining, and that 

 of a more impressive kind. Lewis and Clark hardly 

 ever mentioned killing one of these animals without dwell- 

 ing on the ability of the species to take punishment; and 

 it is made clearly evident that this, as much as any other 

 fact, contributed to the awe with which they regarded 

 them. "The wonderful power of life which these ani- 

 mals possess," says the journal, "renders them dread- 

 ful, their very track in the mud or sand ... is alarming, 

 and we had rather encounter two Indians than meet a 

 single brown bear." 



Now, before discussing the weapons used by these 

 early hunters and estimating the effect of their very real 

 dangers upon their judgment, I wish to call attention to 

 one or two facts, and to one or two inferences that seem 

 to me to flow from them. 



To begin with, I have never seen it claimed that the 

 grizzly has degenerated in this matter of vitality. Every 

 writer whose works I have read, while appearing to admit 

 the accuracy of early observations, takes it for granted 

 that the perfecting of the modern rifle accounts for any 

 discrepancies that may appear between those observations 

 and our own. 



Next, I want to note that if the grizzly really had, in 

 the early days, exceeded all the other animals of his habi- 

 tat in his resistance to wounds and in his ability to with- 

 stand the shock of them, this difference between him and 

 them should have become more marked, not less so, as 



