298 CROSSING THE PRAIRIES. 



coolness, an animal as formidable as a bison. If you 

 only pronounced the name of the grisly bear, you threw 

 them into a panic ! I killed two or three bisons without 

 receiving the slightest help from my people Narcissus 

 excepted ; and he, I must own, stood bravely by mv side 

 under all circumstances, though his teeth began to 

 chatter, and his eyes to stream like springs, when we 

 approached the enemy. 



" One day, after noon," continued Mr. Jeffrey, " I 

 drew up my waggons in the vicinity of a pool, whither 

 different species of animals resorted at night to drink. 

 We could see their traces all along the shore. The 

 locality being well known to the Canadians, they begged 

 of me to encamp at some distance off; because, said they, 

 the Grislys were very dangerous in these parts, and if we 

 remained on the border of the lake, we should probably 

 lose some of our horses, and perhaps be ourselves 

 attacked. It is a curious fact that when once a Grisly 

 has tasted human flesh, he seems to prefer ifc to all other 

 food, and disdains all other prey when he can seize a 

 man. Of course I did not wish to imperil either my 

 servants or my cattle; and when the latter had fully 

 quenched their thirst, I marched about two miles further, 

 and halted in a little valley, from which it was impossible 

 to see the pond. 



" We kindled a great fire to keep off the wild beasts, 

 and allowed our horses to gather here and there a few 

 blades of grass in the midst of the surrounding rocks. 

 As for myself, I eagerly longed for an opportunity to 

 salute a Grisly with a rifle-bullet, since I had not shot 

 one for at least three years. 



" Still, as I had not been very fortunate in some rifle- 



