Early History — Lewis and Clark 23 



May 31, 1806. (On one of the upper branches of the 

 Columbia River.) "Two men visited the Indian village, 

 where they purchased a dressed bearskin, of a uniform 

 pale reddish-brown color, which the Indians called 

 yackah, in contradistinction to hohhost, or white bear. 

 This remark induced us to inquire more particularly into 

 their opinions as to the several species of bears; we there- 

 fore produced all the skins of that animal which we had 

 killed at this place, and also one very nearly white which 

 we had purchased. The natives immediately classed the 

 white, the deep and the pale grizzly-red, the grizzly dark 

 brown, in short, all those with the extremities of the hair 

 of a white or frosty color, without regard to the color of 

 the ground of the poil, under the name of hohhost. They 

 assured us that they were all of the same species with the 

 white bear; that they associated together, had longer 

 nails than the others, and never climb trees. On the 

 other hand, the black skins, those which were black with 

 a number. of entirely white hairs intermixed, or with a 

 white breast, the uniform bay, the brown, and light red- 

 dish-brown, were ranged under the class yackah, and 

 were said to resemble each other in being smaller, in hav- 

 ing shorter nails than the white bears, in climbing trees, 

 and being so little vicious that they could be pursued 

 with safety. This distinction of the Indians seems to be 

 well founded, and we are inclined to believe: First, that 

 the white, grizzly, etc., bear of this neighborhood forms 

 a distinct species, which, moreover, is the same with that 

 of the same color on the upper part of the Missouri, where 

 the other species is not found; second, that the black, 

 reddish-brown, etc., is a second species, equally distinct 



