2 6c SOME ACCOITNT of 



fore-teeth, or of a jaw bone fliewing it had, or had not, 

 fuch teeth, muftbe waited for, and hoped with patience. 

 It may be better, in the mean time, to keep up the dif- 

 ference of name. 



N". XXX r. 



A Lctierfrom Mr. John Heckewelder /o Benja- 

 min Smith Barton, M. D. containing an Account 

 of an Animal called the Big Naked Bear. 



Dear Sir, 

 Read MarchX HAVE now to communicatc to you, what 

 10, 1797. ^ came to my knowledge refpefting an animal, 

 which the Mohican Indians called Ahamagachktiat Me- 

 cehqua, and the Delawares (if 1 recollect right) Amang- 

 achktiat. The Big Naked Bear. Their reports rur* thus : 

 That among all animals that had been formerly in this 

 country, this was the moil ferocious. That it was much 

 larger, than the largeft of the common bears, and re- 

 markably long-bodied : all over, (except a fpot of hair 

 on its back ©f a white colour,) naked. That it attacked 

 and devoured man and beaft, and that a man, or a 

 common bear, only ferved for one meal to one of thefe 

 animals, "T hat with its teeth it could crack the flrongeft 

 bones. That it could not fee very well, but in difcover- 

 ing its prey by fcent, it exceeded all other animals. That 

 it purfued its prey with unremitting ravenoufnefs, and 

 that there was no other way of efcaping, but hj taking 

 to a river, and either fwimming down the fame, or fa- 

 ving one's felf by means of a canoe. That its heart being 

 remarkably fmall, it could feldom be killed with the ar- 

 row. That the fureft way of deftroying him was to break 

 his back-bone. That when a party went out to deftroy 

 a this 



