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.

There is no chance of killing them by a single shot unless the ball goes through the brain, and this is very difficult on account of two large muscles which cover the side of the forehead and the sharp projection of the centre of the frontal bone, which is also thick.
"Our camp was on the south, at the distance of sixteen miles from that of last night.

The fleece and skin of the bear were a heavy burden for two men, and the oil amounted to eight gallons." The name of the badly-scared Bratton was bestowed upon a creek which discharges into the Missouri near the scene of this encounter.

Game continued to be very abundant.

On the fourteenth, according to the journal, the hunters were hunted, to their great discomfiture.