Captain Clarke agrees with La Hontan in ascribing fierceness of disposition to the brown bear, and also speaks of it as "reddish," or of a bay brown. "We had rather," says Captain Clarke, "encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear; their very track in the mud or sand, which we have sometimes found 11 inches long and 7¼ wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming. The wonderful power of life which they possess renders them dreadful: there is no chance of killing them by a single shot, unless the ball goes through the brain." ... Six of Captain Clarke's party, all good hunters, having sight of a large one of the brown breed, came unperceived within forty paces of him; four of them then fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of which went directly through the lungs. The brave beast made at them instantly; as he came near, the two men who had reserved their shot both wounded him; one of the balls broke his shoulder, and retarded his motion for a moment; before they could reload, he was so near that they all ran to the river; two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated, hid themselves among the willows, and, firing as fast as they could reload, struck him repeatedly, but every shot seemed as if it only served to guide him, and he pursued two of them so closely that at last they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the water. Even this did not secure them; Bruin sprang after them, and was within a few feet of the hindermost, when one of the hunters from the shore shot him in the head. It was found that eight balls had passed through him. Another brown bear, after being shot five times through the lungs, and receiving four other wounds, swam half across the river to a sand-bar. This creature measured 8 feet 7½ inches from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet, and his heart was as big as that of a large ox, his maw ten times larger. Another, having been shot through the middle of the lungs, pursued his enemy for half a mile, than traveled more than a mile in another direction, and dug, as if for his grave, a hole for himself in the earth two feet deep and five feet long, in which he was found by the hunters. The skin of this beast was a burden for two men.—Captain Lewis and Clarke's Travels to the Source of the Missouri River.
FOOTNOTES:
[226] Bear's flesh is reckoned one of the greatest rarities among the Chinese, insomuch that, as Du Halde informs us, the emperor will send fifty or a hundred leagues into Tartary to procure it for a great entertainment.
No. XXXV.
"None of the foxes of North America possess the long-enduring speed of the European kind, their strength appearing to be exhausted at the first burst, after which they are easily overtaken by a mounted horseman. The American cross fox (Canis decussatus) is probably nothing more than a variety of the red fox of that country (Canis fulvus), though usually of smaller size. Its fur is highly esteemed; a single skin, not many years ago, being worth from four to five guineas, while that of the red fox did not bring more than 15s. The black, or silver fox (Canis argentatus) is a much rarer and still more valuable variety, of which seldom more than four or five individuals are ever taken at any single post throughout the year. It varies from a mixed or hoary hue to a shining black, and La Hontan observes that, in his time, the skin of one was worth its weight in gold. We know that it still brings six times the price of any fur obtained in America."—H. Murray, vol. iii., p. 236.
No. XXXVI.
Charlevoix says that hares and rabbits are the same in America as in Europe, except that their hinder feet are longer than their fore feet. The rabbit, however, has never been found wild in any part of America. La Hontan says that the Ossæ are little animals like hares, and resemble them in every thing excepting the ears and fore feet.
No. XXXVII.
Sciurus, a name formed of two Greek words, signifying shade and tail, because the tail serves this animal for an umbrella. The Sciurus Niger, Black Squirrel; the S. Vulpinus, Cat Squirrel; the S. Hudsonius, Hudson's Bay Squirrel, and S. Striatus, Striped Squirrel, are all natives of Canada, besides two species of flying squirrels. The S. Cinereus, Gray Squirrel, is confined entirely to North America. It is about half the size of a full-grown rabbit; the animal is of an elegant pale gray, with the inside of the limbs and the under part of the body white; the ears and tail are sometimes tinged with black. It is frequently so numerous as to do incredible mischief to plantations of corn; hence it is a proscribed animal, and 3d. per head given for every one killed; at which rate, in the year 1749, £8000 were paid in rewards.
The black squirrel, Weld says, is also peculiar to North America. It is entirely of a shining black, except that the muzzle and the tail are sometimes white; specimens have sometimes been seen with a white ring round the neck. "In this year" (1796), Weld says, "the black squirrels migrated from the south, from the territory of the United States. As if conscious of their inability to cross a very wide piece of water, they bent their course toward Niagara River, above the falls, and at its narrowest and most tranquil part, crossed over into the British territory. It was calculated that upward of 50,000 of them crossed the river in the course of two or three days, and such great depredations did they commit on arriving at the opposite side, that in one part of the country the farmers deemed themselves very fortunate where they got in as much as one third of their crops of corn. Some writers have asserted that these animals can not swim, but that when they come to a river, in migrating, each one provides itself with a piece of wood or bark, upon which, when a favorable wind offers, they embark, spread their bushy tails to catch the wind, and are thus wafted over to the opposite side. Whether these animals do or do not sometimes cross in this manner, I can not take upon me to say; but I can safely affirm that they do not always cross so, for I have often shot them in the water while swimming. Their tail is useful to them by way of rudder, and they use it with great dexterity; owing to its being so light and bushy, the greater part of it floats upon the water, and thus helps to support the animal."—P. 330.