WESTERN WILD SPORTS. 189 



small rivers, whlcli discharge their waters into the east side of 

 the Gulf of California, near the dividing line between the pro- 

 vinces of Biscay and Sonora. We happened at the time to be 

 marching along at the foot of those mountains, and fell in with 

 the Indian who had them, when I conceived the idea of bring- 

 ing them to the United States, for your excellency. Although 

 then more than 1600 miles from our frontier post, Natchitoches, 

 I purchased them of the savage, and for three or four days 

 made my men carry them in their laps on horseback. As they 

 would eat nothing but milk, they were in danger of starving. I 

 then had a cage prepared for both, which was earned on a 

 mule, lashed between two packs, but always ordered them to 

 be let out the moment we halted, and not shut up again until 

 we were prepared to march. By this treatment they became 

 extremely docile when at liberty, following my men, whom 

 they learned to distinguish from the Spanish dragoons, by their 

 feeding them, and encamping with them, like dogs through 

 our camps, the small villages and forts where we halted.. When 

 well supplied with sustenance they would play like young 

 puppies with each other and the soldiers, but the instant they 

 were shut up and placed on the mule, they became cross, as the 

 jostling of the animal knocked them against each other, a'ld 

 they were sometimes left exposed to the scorching heat of a 

 vertical sun for a day without food or a drop of water, in which 

 case they would worry and tear each other, until nature was 

 exhausted, and they could neither fight nor howl any longer 

 They will be one year old on the first of next month — March, 

 1808 — and, as I am informed, they frequently arrive at the 

 weight of eight hundred pounds.' 



" The Grizzly Bear is remarkably tenacious of life, and on 

 many occasions numerous rifle balls have been fired into the 

 body of an individual, without much apparent injury. Instances 

 are related by the travellers who have explored the countries in 

 the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, of from ten to fourteen 

 balls having been discharged into the body of one of these 

 Bears before it expired. 



