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^r heart, is mortal; and they have even escaped after being shot in several place? 

 through the body. The Indians never attack him but in parties of six or eight 

 persons, and even then are often defeated with the loss of one or more of the 

 party ; and when they go in quest of him, paint themselves, and perform all the 

 superstitious rites customary when they make war on a neighbouring nation. 

 The indians say these bears have killed a number of their bravest men. Oa 

 Lewis and Clarke's expedition, they frequently attacked the hunters ; and captain 

 Lewis himself was chased by one of them, and escaped only by plunging into a 

 river. One of Lewis and Clarke's men shot one of them through the lungs ; it 

 nevertheless pursued him furiously half a mile, and he was only relieved from 

 his danger by captain Lewis and seven men, who followed the bear4)y his blood 

 a mile, and killed him ; he had, witli his talons, prepared himself a bed in the 

 earth two feet deep and five feet long ; arid was perfectly alive when they found 

 him, which was at least two hours after he received the wound.' (Transaction.* 

 of the American Pkihsophital Society, vol. 6. Ga&s's Journal. Lents and 

 CiurkiSs expcd&fatiip the Missouri, vol. 1.) Dixon, the indian trader, told a 

 friend of mine tint tin'.- animal had been seen fourteen feet long j and that not- 

 withitandingjits ferocity, it ha* been sometimes domesticated ; and that an indian 

 belonging io a tribe on the head waters of the Mississippi had one, in this reclaim- 

 ed state, which he sportively directed to go into a canoe belonging to another 

 tribe of indians then about returning from a visit ; the bear obeyed, and was 

 struck by an indian ; being considered one of the family, this was deemed an in- 

 sult, was resented accordingly, and produced a war "between these nations. The 

 reverend John Hechewelder states, that (.he rnohican indians had a tradition 04 

 an animal called the big naked bear. They say that the last was seen on the 

 east side of Hudson's river, where the indians killed him after great difficulty j 

 that it was remarkably long bodied, and larger than the common bear ; all over 

 naked, except a spot of hair on its back, of a white colour; that it was very 

 destructive to their nation, killing and devouring them. And such was the 

 terror it inspired, that they often say to their children, when crying, " Hush, 

 the naked bear will hear you, be upon you, and devour you." This account 

 agrees, in general, with the grizzly bear ; and particularly in the dimensions of- 

 the animal, its appetite for human flesh, and its terrific character. There is 

 nothing in our climate which forbids this hypothesis. (American Philosophical 

 Transactions, .vol. 4.) It was a long time supposed that this animal was the- 

 ursus arctos of Linnaeus, and he is so characterized in the 6th volume of the 

 Philosophical Transactions before referred to. I am sorry to say, that such is 

 tne low state of natural knowledge among us, that dr. Belknap the inestimable 

 historian of New-Hampshire, has even represented -our common bear as the 

 ursus ar-: to?. (l r cl. 3.) Bossu, in his travels in Louisiana, says th'ey-have 



