NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 115 



pouches, from two to four inches asunder ; whereas those of the black bear are situated 

 back, between the thighs, like a dog's ; its track in the mud or sand has been seen some- 

 times eleven inches long, and seven and a quarter wide, exclusive of the talons. It is 

 principally carnivorous, and will generally attack a man wherever it sees him. These 

 animals are numerous, and their tenacity of life is wonderful. No wound except through 

 the head or heart, is mortal ; and they have even escaped after being shot in several 

 places through the body. The Indians never attack him but in parties of six or eight 

 persons, and even then are often defeated with the loss of one or more of the party ; and 

 when they go in quest of him, paint themselves, and perform all the superstitious rites cus- 

 tomary when they make war on a neighbouring nation. The Indians say these bears have 

 killed a number of their bravest men. On Lewis and Clarke's expedition, they frequent- 

 ly attacked the hunters, and Captain Lewis himself was chased by one of them, and 

 escaped only by plunging into a river. One of Lewis and Clarke's men shot one of them 

 through the lungs ; it nevertheless pursued him furiously half a mile, and he was only re- 

 lieved from his danger by Captain Lewis and seven men, who followed the bear by his 

 blood a mile, and killed him : he had, with his talons, prepared himself a bed in the earth, 

 two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive when they found him, which was 

 at least two hours after he received the wound. (Transactions of American Philosophi- 

 cal Society, vol. 6. Gass's Journal. Lewis and Clarke's Expedition up the Missouri, 

 vol. 1.) Dixon, the Indian trader, told a friend of mine, that this animal had been seen 

 fourteen feet long, and that notwithstanding its ferocity, it has been sometimes domesti- 

 cated, and that an Indian belonging to a tribe on the head waters of the Mississippi, had 

 one in this reclaimed state, which he sportively directed to go into a canoe belonging to 

 another tribe of Indians then about returning from a visit : the bear obeyed, and was 

 struck by an Indian ; being considered one of the family, this was deemed an insult, was 

 resented accordingly, and produced a war between these nations. The Reverend John 

 Hechewelder states, that the Mohican Indians had a tradition of an animal called the 

 big naked bear. They say that the last was seen on the east side of Hudson's river, 

 where two Indians killed him, after great difficulty ; that it was remarkably long bodied, 

 and larger than the common bear ; all over naked, except a spot of hair on its back, of a 

 white colour ; that it was very destructive to their nation, killing and devouring them. 

 And such was the terror it inspired, that they often say to their children, when crying, 

 " Hush, the naked bear will hear you, be upon you, and devour you." This account agrees, 

 in general, with the grizzly bear, and particularly in the dimensions of the animal, its ap- 

 petite for human flesh, and its terrific character. There is nothing in our climate which 



