298 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



approachmg tlie boat we met Mr. Sprague, who 

 informed us that he thought he had seen a grizzly 

 bear walking along tbe upper bank of the river, 

 and we went towards the spot as fast as possible. 

 Meantime the bear had gone down to the water, 

 and was clumsily and slowly proceeding on its 

 way. It was only a few paces from and below 

 us, and was seen by our whole party at the same 

 instant. We all fired, and the animal dropped 

 dead without even the power of uttering a groan. 

 Mr. Culbertson put a rifle ball through its neck, 

 Bell placed two large balls in its side, and our 

 bullet entered its belly. After shooting the 

 bear we proceeded to a village of ' prairie dogs,' 

 and set traps in hopes of catching some of them. 

 We were inclined to think they had all left, but 

 Mr. Bell seeing two, shot them. There were 

 thousands of their burrows in sight. Our ' pat- 

 roon,' assisted by one of the men, skinned the 

 bear, which weighed, as we thought, about four 

 hundred pounds. It appeared to be between 

 four and five years old, and was a male. Its 

 lard was rendered, and filled sundry bottles with 

 ' real bear's grease,' whilst we had the skin pre- 

 served by our accomplished taxidermist, Mr. 

 Bell." 



The following afternoon, as we were descend- 

 ing the stream, we saw another grizzly bear, 

 somewhat smaller than the one mentioned above. 



