296 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



and bj red man, this animal is fortunately not 

 very abundant to the eastward of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and the chance of encountering him 

 does not often occur. We saw only a few of 

 these formidable beasts during our expedition 

 up the Missouri river, and in the country over 

 which we hunted during our last journey to the 

 west. 



The Indians, as is well known, consider the 

 slaughter of a grizzly bear a feat second only to 

 scalping an enemy, and necklaces made of the 

 claws of this beast are worn as trophies by even 

 the bravest among them. 



On the 22d of August, 1843, we killed one 

 of these bears, and as our journals are before us, 

 and thinking it may be of interest, we will ex- 

 tract the account of the day's proceedings, al- 

 though part of it has no connection with our 

 present subject. We were descending the Upper 

 Missouri river. 



" The weather being fine, we left our camp of 

 the previous night early, but had made only 

 about twelve miles when the wind arose and 

 prevented our men from making any headway 

 with the oars ; we therefore landed under a high 

 bank amongst a number of fallen trees and some 

 drifted timber. All hands went in search of 

 elks. Mr. Culbertson killed a deer, and with 

 the help of Mr. Squires brought the meat to the 



