190 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
“ On another occasion, the same enterprising travellers, 
Lewis and Clarke, met with the largest Bear of this species 
they had ever seen; when they fired, he did not attempt to 
attack, but fled with a tremendous roar; and such was his tena¬ 
city of life, that although five balls had passed through the 
lungs, and five other wounds were inflicted, he swam more than 
half across the river to a sand-bar, and survived more than 
twenty minutes. This individual weighed five or six hundred 
pounds, at least, and measured eight feet seven and a half 
inches, from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet; five 
feet ten and a half inches around the breast; three feet eleven 
inches around the middle of the fore leg; and his claws were 
four and three-eighth inches long. The chance of killing a 
Grizzly Bear by a single shot is very small, unless the ball pene¬ 
trates the brain, or passes through the heart. This is very diffi¬ 
cult to effect, since the form of the skull, and the strong muscles 
on the side of the head, protect the brain against every injury, 
except a very truly aimed shot; and the thick coat of hair, the 
strong muscles and ribs, make it nearly as difficult to lodge a ball 
fairly in the heart. 
“ Governor Clinton says, that ‘ Dixon, an Indian, told a friend 
of his, that this animal had been seen fourteen feet long ; that, 
notwithstanding its ferocity, it had been occasionally domesti 
cated; and that an Indian, belonging to a tribe on the head 
waters of the Mississippi, had one in a reclaimed state, which he 
sportively directed to go into a canoe belonging to another tribe of 
Indians, then returning from a visit; the Bear obeyed, and was 
6truck by an Indian. Being considered as one of the family 
this was deemed an insult, resented accordingly, and produced 
a war between these nations.’ 
“ Mr. Dougherty, a very experienced hunter, relates the 
following instance of the great muscular strength of the Grizzly 
Bear: Having killed a Bison, and left the carcass for the pur 
pose of procuring assistance to skin and cut it up, he was very 
much surprised, on his return, to find that it had been dragged 
off whole to a considerable distance, by a Grizzly Bear, and 
