THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY 443 



tier the immense blocks of the pumice that had fallen to their bases, determined, 

 if possible, to find the crater, or source, from whence these strange phenomena had 

 sprung ; but after clambering and squeezing about for some time I unfortunately came 

 upon the enormous tracks of a grizzly bear, which, apparently, was traveling in the 

 same direction (probably for a very different purpose) but a few moments before me; 

 and my ardor for exploring was instantly so cooled down that I hastily retraced my 

 steps, and was satisfied with making my drawings, and collecting specimens of tho 

 lava and other minerals in its vicinity. 



After strolling about during the day, and contemplating the beauty of the scenes 

 that were around me, while I sat upon the pinnacles of these pumice-capped mounds, 

 most of which time Bogard and Ba'tiste lay enjoying the pleasure of a " mountaineer's 

 nap," we met together, took our coffee and dried buffalo tongues, spread our buffalo 

 robes upon the grass, and enjoyed during the night the luxury of sleep that belongs 

 so peculiarly to the tired voyageur in these realms of pure air and dead silence. 



In the morning, and before sunrise, as usual, Bogard (who was a Yankee, and a 

 wide-awake fellow, just retiring from a ten-years' siege of hunting and trapping in 

 tho Rocky Mountains), thrust his head out from under the robe, rubbing his eyes 

 open, and exclaiming, as he reached for his gun, "By darn, look at old Cale, will 

 you ! " Ba'tiste, who was more fond of his dreams, snored away, muttering some- 

 thing that I could not understand, when Bogard seized him with a grip that instantly 

 shook off his iron slumbers. I rose at the same time, and all eyes were turned at once 

 upon Caleb (as the grizzly bear is familiarly called by the trappers in the Rocky Mount- 

 ains, or more often " Cale," for brevity's sake), who was sitting up in the dignity and 

 fury of her sex within a few rods and gazing upon us, with her two little cubs at her 

 side. Here was a "fix n and a subject for the painter ; but I had no time to sketch it. 

 I turned my eyes to the canoe, which had been fastened at the shore a few paces from 

 us, and saw that everything had been pawed out of it and all edibles had been 

 without ceremony devoured. My packages of dresses and Indian curiosities had been 

 drawn out upon the bank and deliberately opened and inspected. Everything had 

 been scraped and pawed out to tho bottom of the boat, and even tho rawhide thong 

 with which it was tied to a stake had been chewed and no doubt swallowed, as there 

 was no trace of it remaining. Nor was this peep into tho secrets of our luggage 

 enough for her insatiable curiosity. We saw by the prints of her huge paws that 

 were left in the ground that she had been perambulating our humble mattresses, 

 smelling at our toes and our noses, without choosing to molest us, verifying a trite 

 saying of the country, "that man lying down is medicine to the grizzly bear," though 

 it is a well-known fact that man and beast upon their feet are sure to be attacked 

 when they cross the path of this grizzly and grim monster, which is the terror of all 

 this country, often growing to the enormous size of eight hundred or one thousand 

 pounds. 



Well, while wo sat in the dilemma which I have just described each one was hastily 

 preparing his weapons for defense, when I proposed the mode of attack, by which 

 means I was in hopes to destroy her, capture her young ones, and bring her skin 

 home as a trophy. My plans, however, entirely failed, though we were all well 

 armed, for Bogard and Ba'tiste both remonstrated with a vehemence that was irre- 

 sistible, saying that the standing rule in tho mountains was "never to fight Caleb 

 except in self-defense." I was almost induced, however, to attack her alone, with my 

 rifle in hand and a pair of heavy pistols, with a tomahawk and scalping-knife in my 

 belt, when Ba'tiste suddenly thrust his arm over my shoulder, and, pointing in an- 

 other direction, exclaimed in an emphatic tone, "Voila! voila un corps do reserve, 

 Monsieur Catline; voila sa mari! Allons, allons! D6scendons la riviere, toute de 

 suite! toute de suite ! monsieur," to which Bogard added, "These darned animals 

 are too much for us and we had better bo off; " at which my courage cooled, and we 

 packed up and re-embarked as fast as possible, giving each one of them the contents 

 of our rifles as we drifted off in the current, which brought the she monster, in all 



