INTRODUCED TO MR. CLENDENIN. 345 



to get our letters we left the next morning, a fortunate thing, 

 as we heard afterwards, as on our arrival at Martinsdale we 

 heard that the party we had just left had been attacked by the 

 Indians that night, who had fired at the tent to frighten them, 

 and had then tried to stampede their horses. But the green- 

 horn had frustrated the attempt by rushing out and firing 

 rapidly at them with a repeating rifle, all the other men re- 

 maining in the tent. Had we been there we should probably 

 have lost all our stock, as our horses were only picketed, while 

 theirs were also hobbled. The Indians had cut the picket-ropes, 

 but in the darkness had not noticed the hobbles, which pre- 

 vented the horses from going off. 



At Martinsdale we introduced ourselves to Mr. Clendenin, 

 a brother of Colonel Clendenin, who owned one of the two 

 houses of which the place was composed, and were hospitably 

 entertained by him. Happening to speak of bears, he told us 

 that he had just returned from a timber camp which he had 

 in the mountains, and that while there a large bear had come 

 into the camp one night, and opening the mess chest had eaten 

 all the bread, sugar, and butter it contained, not attempting to 

 touch anyone. He told us, too, that when his brother was on 

 his way the year before between Benton and Berthold on 

 horseback, two large grizzlies had come down close to his camp, 

 where he and his companions were sitting by the fire, and had 

 evidently wished to carry off a deer which was hanging up. 

 They had only one small-bore rifle with them, which would only 

 have irritated the bears without doing them much harm, so 

 they did not fire, managing at last to drive them away with 

 firebrands. This was in the winter, when the snow was deep and 

 the bears savage from hunger. I heard of one which came into 



