Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/200

188 rocks with so much agility and ease, that no other animal can follow it; and by this means it escapes the wolves. Its flesh is esteemed equal to that of the deer.

On the 3d of August, we moved up into the mountains and met with a camp of Gens-de-panse or the Paunched Indians. We encamped with them for the night, and on the 4th, about noon, we had like to have been defeated, by a monstrous white bear. Four or five of the men were ahead, and turning the point of a steep hill, they met a white bear, and fired upon him, but only wounded him. He immediately turned upon them, and they retreated. At the point of the hill they met the rest of the party, the bear pursuing close to their heels, which threw the whole party into confusion. Not being room for us to escape, the bear was in a moment in the midst of us. As one man turned and attempted to run, the bear seized his buffaloe robe, and had not the fastening given way, would have drawn him under his paws. While he was spending his rage on the robe, one of the men shot him dead on the spot. As soon as he fell, the whole party made the air ring with their shouts. This bear was much larger than the black bear. The meat only would have weighed more than four hundred pounds. The mountains here are steep, and some of their points and sides are covered with a small growth, mostly of the spruce kind. The stream we Were ascending is winding, interrupted, and full of rapids,