Here is an entry in
the journal of May 11:--
"About five in the afternoon one of our men (Bratton), who had been
afflicted with boils and suffered to walk on shore, came running to the
boats with loud cries, and every symptom of terror and distress. For
some time after we had taken him on board he was so much out of breath
as to be unable to describe the cause of his anxiety; but he at length
told us that about a mile and a half below he had shot a brown bear,
which immediately turned and was in close pursuit of him; but the bear
being badly wounded could not overtake him. Captain Lewis, with seven
men, immediately went in search of him; having found his track they
followed him by the blood for a mile, found him concealed in some
thick brushwood, and shot him with two balls through the skull. Though
somewhat smaller than that killed a few days ago, he was a monstrous
animal, and a most terrible enemy. Our man had shot him through the
centre of the lungs; yet he had pursued him furiously for half a
mile, then returned more than twice that distance, and with his talons
prepared himself a bed in the earth two feet deep and five feet long;
he was perfectly alive when they found him, which was at least two hours
after he had received the wound. The wonderful power of life which these
animals possess renders them dreadful; their very track in the mud or
sand, which we have sometimes found eleven inches long and seven and
one-fourth wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming; and we had rather
encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear.
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