XII. 



THE GRIZZLY AS FREMONT FOUND 

 HIM. 



General Fremont found this powerful 

 brute to be a gregarious and confiding 

 creature, fond of his family and not given 

 to disturbing those who did not disturb 

 him. In his report to the government 

 1847 he tells of finding a large family of 

 grizzly bears gathering acorns very much 

 as the native Indians gathered them, and 

 this not far from a small Mexican town. 

 He says that riding at the head of his 

 troops he saw, on reaching the brow of a 

 little grassy hill set with oaks, a great com- 

 motion in the boughs of one of the larg- 

 est trees, and, halting to cautiously recon- 

 noiter, he noticed that there were grouped 

 about the base of the tree and under its 

 wide boughs, several huge grizzlies, em- 

 ployed in gathering and eating the acorns 

 112 



