216 SPOET IN NORTH AMERICA. 



brought it ashore. After some time another shot 

 was fired iuto the opening, but still nothing stirred; 

 the silence Avas profound. We then resolved to 

 clear away the branches and the moss from the 

 entrance, and see what was the state of the case. 

 At the further end of the lair lay a she bear, quite 

 dead. The axe of our guide had opened her skull ; 

 but the chance bullet which I had fired had hit her 

 mortally. As my gun was the only one of the 

 calibre there was no doubt about it ; so I and the 

 guide shared the honours of victory. 



I have another story of a grizzly bear, which was 

 told me by the hero of it himself. During my stay 

 at St. Louis, I had occasion to mix a great deal with 

 some of those adventurous traders who carry on 

 such a lucrative trade in the American desert. They 

 travel about for six months or more, and go from 

 one tribe to another, with their wagons and servants, 

 until all their goods are sold. Tlie}^ then return to 

 Fort Leavenworth, bringing skins, gold, and other 

 precious commodities with them, which give them a 

 profit of about five hundred per cent. The majority 

 of those with whom I became acquainted traded west 

 of the Mississippi. 



One of the most venturesome, and at the same 

 time most fortunate, of these traders was John 

 Jefi'ery, an Englishman by birth, who had gained a 

 nice little fortune by his excursions among the Red 

 Skins, and was beginning to be desirous of retiring. 



