Louisiana and Aaron Burr 357 



the explorers of their own accord, when neither mo- 

 lested nor threatened. They galloped after the hunt- 

 ers when they met them on horseback even in the 

 open; and they attacked them just as freely when 

 they found them on foot. To go through the brush 

 was dangerous; again and again one or another of 

 the party was charged and forced to take to a tree, 

 at the foot of which the bear sometimes mounted 

 guard for hours before going off. When wounded 

 the beasts fought with desperate courage, and 

 showed astonishing tenacity of life, charging any 

 number of assailants, and succumbing but slowly 

 even to mortal wounds. In one case a bear that was 

 on shore actually plunged into the water and swam 

 out to attack one of the canoes as it passed. How- 

 ever, by this time all of the party had become good 

 hunters, expert in the use of their rifles, and they 

 killed great numbers of their ursine foes. 



Nor were the bears their only brute enemies. The 

 rattlesnakes were often troublesome. Unlike the 

 bears, the wolves were generally timid, and preyed 

 only on the swarming game; but one night a wolf 

 crept into camp and seized a sleeper by the hand; 

 when driven off he jumped upon another man, and 

 was shot by a third. A less intentional assault was 

 committed by a buffalo bull which one night blun- 

 dered past the fires, narrowly escaped trampling on 

 the sleepers, and had the whole camp in an uproar 

 before it rushed off into the darkness. When hunted 

 the buffalo occasionally charged; but there was not 

 much danger in their chase. 



