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Show 200 Monday 29. We procccde•~ early with a modct•a(e w.inti: captain I~ewis who was on shm·e with one hunter met about eight o'clock two white bem·s: of the strengtll ami fcrocit.Y of tbis animal, the Indians had given us dreadful accounts: they never attack him but in 1mrties of six or eight persons. and even then arc often defeated with the ioss of one or more of the 1,arty. Havingnoweat>ons but bows and arrows; and the bad guns with which the iradet·s supply them, they are obliged to approach very Rear to the bea r; and as no wound except through the llmul or heart is mortal, they frequently fall a sacrifice if they miss their aim. He rather attacks than avoids a man, and such is the terror which he bas inspir·cd, that the Indians who go in (]Uest or him paint t hemselves and perform all the superstitious rites customary when they make war on a ncighbom·ing nation. Hitherto those we had seen did not appear desirous of encounterjn!.; us, but although to a skilful rifleman the danger is ' 'ery much diminished, yet the white bear is still a tm·rible animal: on approaching these two, both captain Lewis and the hunter fired and each wounded a bear: one of them made his escatle; the othe1• turned upon captain Lewis and 1mrsucd him seventy or eighty yards, but being badly wounded he could not run so fast as to prevent him from reloading his piece, which he again aimed at him, and a third shot from the hunter brought him to the ground: he was a male not quite full grown, aml weighed about three hundt·ed pounds: the legs are somewhat longet· than those of the black bear, and the talons and tusks much larger and longer. The testicles are also placed much farthct' forward and sus]>ended in separate pouches from two to four inches asunder, while those of the black bear are situated back bet ween the thighs and in a single pouch like those of the dog: its colour is a yellowish brown, the eyes small, black, aml piercing, the front of the fore legs near the feet is usually black, ~nd the fur is finer, thicker, and deeper than that of the black bear: ~tdd to which, it is a more furious animal, and very re; ma,·kahle for tl1c wounds which it will bear without ~ying. Up the ~fissomi. .201 'Ve at·e surrounded with deer, elk, buffaloe, antelopes, and their companions the wolves, who have become more numerous and make gt·eat ravages among them: the hills are here much more rough and high, and almost ovet·hang the banks of the river. There are greater appearances of goal than we have hitherto seen, the stratas of it being in some places six feet thick, and there arc stl'atas of burnt earth, which are always on the same level with those of coal. In the evening after coming twenty-five miles we encamped at the entrance of a river which empties itself into a bend on the north side of the Missoul'i: this stream which we called Martha's river, is about fifty yards wide, with water for fifteen yards, the banks are of earth, and steep, tbouO"h l . t) not ugh, and the bed principally of mud. Captain Clarke, 'l'ho ascended it fcH' three miles, found that it continued of the same w.idtb with a gentle current, and pursuing its course about north 30° west, through an extensive, fertile, and beautiful valley, but without a single tree. The water is clear, and has a brownish yellow tint; at this place the highlands which yesterday and to-day had approached so near the river became lower, and receding from the watet~ left a valley seven or eight miles wide. 'ruesday so. The wind was high from the north dnrinoo 1 . b ast evemng and continued so this morning: we howevm· continued, and found the river more winding than usual and with a number of sand islands and bars, on one of which last we encamped at the distance ~f twenty-four miles. The low grounds are fertile and extensive but with very little timber, and that cottonwood, very bad of it» kind, being too small for planks, and broken and dead at the top and unsound in the centre of the trunk. We passed some ancient lodges of driftwood which do not appear to have been lately inhabited. The game continues abundant: we killed the largest male elk we have yet seen; on placing it in its natul·al erect position, we found that it meaiured iivc feet three inches f1·om the point of the hoof to the top VOL. I. D d |