W& FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



" On another occasion, the same enterprising travellers, 

 Lewis and Clarke, met with the largest Bear of this species 

 they had ever seen ; when they fired, he did not attempt to 

 attack, but fled with a tremendous roar ; and such was his tena- 

 city of life, that although five balls had passed through the 

 lungs, and five other wounds were inflicted, he swam moj-e than 

 half across the river to a sand-bar, and survived more than 

 twenty minutes. This individual weighed five or six hundred 

 pounds, at least, and measured eight feet seven and a half 

 inches, from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet ; five 

 feet ten and a half inches around the breast ; three feet eleven 

 inches around the middle of the fore leg ; and his claws were 

 four and three-eighth inches long. The chance of killing a 

 Grizzly Bear by a single shot is very small, unless the ball pene- 

 trates the brain, or passes through the heart. This is very difii- 

 cult to effect, since the form of the skull, and the strong muscles 

 on the side of the head, protect the brain against every injury, 

 except a very truly aimed shot; and the thick coat of hair, the 

 strong muscles and ribs, make it nearly as difficult to lodge a ball 

 fairly in the heart. 



" Governor Clinton says, that ' Dixon, an Indian, told a friend 

 of his, that this animal had been seen fourteen feet long; that, 

 notwithstanding its ferocity, it had been occasionally domesti- 

 cated ; and that an Indian, belonging to a tribe on the head 

 waters of the Mississippi, had one in a reclaimed state, which he 

 sportively directed to go into a canoe belonging to another tribe of 

 Indians, then returning from a visit ; the Bear obeyed, and was 

 struck by an Indian. Being considered as one of the family, 

 tliis was deemed an insult, resented accordingly, and produced 

 a war- between ihese nations.' 



" Mr. Dougherty, a very experienced hunter, relates the 

 following instance of the great muscular strength of the Grizzly 

 Bear : Having killed a Bison, and left the carcass for the pur- 

 pose of procuring assistance to skin and cut it up, he was very 

 much surprised, on his return, to find that it had been dragged 

 off" whole to a considerable distance, by a Grizzly Bear, and 



