OAT THE PRAIRIE 199 



more civilized foes, as at the battles of 

 ;'s Mountain and New Orleans. But 

 i the restless frontiersmen pressed out 

 over the Western plains, they encounten 

 the grizzly a beast of far greater bulk and 

 more savage temper than any of those found 

 in the Eastern woods, and their small-bo: 

 fles were utterly inadequate weapons with 

 which to cope with him. It is small wonder 

 that he was considered by them to be almost 

 invulnerable, and extraordinarily tenacious 

 of life. He would be a most unpleasant an- 

 tagonist now to a man armed only with a 

 thirty-two calibre rifle, that carried but a sin- 

 gle shot and was loaded at the muzzle. A 

 rifle, to be of use in this sport, should carry a 

 ball weighing from half an ounce to an 

 ounce. With the old pea-rifles the shot had 

 to be in the eye or heart; and accidents to 

 the hunter were very common. But the in- 

 troduction of heavy breech-loading repeaters 

 has greatly lessened the danger, even in the 

 very few and far-off plao re the griz- 



zlies are as ferocious as formerly. For now- 



