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"The Hunters Killed Some Pheasants, Two Squirrels, And A Male
And A Female Bear, The First Of Which Was Large,
Fat, and of a
bay color; the second meagre, grizzly, and of smaller size.
They were of the species [Ursus
Horribilis] common to the upper
part of the Missouri, and might well be termed the variegated bear,
for they are found occasionally of a black, grizzly, brown, or red color.
There is every reason to believe them to be of precisely the same species.
Those of different colors are killed together, as in the case of these two,
and as we found the white and bay associated together on the Missouri;
and some nearly white were seen in this neighborhood by the hunters.
Indeed, it is not common to find any two bears of the same color;
and if the difference in color were to constitute a distinction
of species, the number would increase to almost twenty.
Soon afterward the hunters killed a female bear with two cubs.
The mother was black, with a considerable intermixture of white hairs
and a white spot on the breast. One of the cubs was jet black,
and the other of a light reddish-brown or bay color. The hair
of these variegated bears is much finer, longer, and more abundant
than that of the common black bear; but the most striking differences
between them are that the former are larger and have longer tusks,
and longer as well as blunter talons; that they prey more on other animals;
that they lie neither so long nor so closely in winter quarters;
and that they never climb a tree, however closely pressed by the hunters.
These variegated bears, though specifically the same with those we
met on the Missouri, are by no means so ferocious; probably because
the scarcity of game and the habit of living on roots may have
weaned them from the practices of attacking and devouring animals.
Still, however, they are not so passive as the common black bear,
which is also to be found here; for they have already fought with
our hunters, though with less fury than those on the other side
of the mountains.
"A large part of the meat we gave to the Indians, to whom it
was a real luxury, as they scarcely taste flesh once in a month.
They immediately prepared a large fire of dried wood,
on which was thrown a number of smooth stones from the river.
As soon as the fire went down and the stones were heated,
they were laid next to each other in a level position,
and covered with a quantity of pine branches, on which were placed
flitches of the meat, and then boughs and flesh alternately
for several courses, leaving a thick layer of pine on the top.
On this heap they then poured a small quantity of water,
and covered the whole with earth to the depth of four inches.
After remaining in this state for about three hours, the meat
was taken off, and was really more tender than that which we
had boiled or roasted, though the strong flavor of the pine
rendered it disagreeable to our palates. This repast gave them
much satisfaction; for, though they sometimes kill the black bear,
they attack very reluctantly the fierce variegated bear;
and never except when they can pursue him on horseback over
the plains, and shoot him with arrows."
Chapter XXII
Camping with the Nez Perces
Soon after they had fixed their camp, the explorers bade farewell
to their good friend Tunnachemootoolt and his young men,
who returned to their homes farther down the river.
Others of the Nez Perce, or Chopunnish, nation visited them,
and the strangers were interested in watching the Indians
preparing for their hunt. As they were to hunt the deer,
they had the head, horns, and hide of that animal so prepared
that when it was placed on the head and body of a hunter,
it gave a very deceptive idea of a deer; the hunter could move
the head of the decoy so that it looked like a deer feeding,
and the suspicious animals were lured within range of the Indians'
bow and arrow.
On the sixteenth of May, Hohastillpilp and his young men also
left the white men's camp and returned to their own village.
The hunters of the party did not meet with much luck in their
quest for game, only one deer and a few pheasants being
brought in for several days. The party were fed on roots
and herbs, a species of onion being much prized by them.
Bad weather confined them to their camp, and a common entry
in their journal refers to their having slept all night in a pool
of water formed by the falling rain; their tent-cover was a
worn-out leathern affair no longer capable of shedding the rain.
While it rained in the meadows where they were camped,
they could see the snow covering the higher plains above them;
on those plains the snow was more than a foot deep, and yet
the plants and shrubs seemed to thrive in the midst of the snow.
On the mountains the snow was several feet in depth.
The journalist says: "So that within twenty miles of our camp
we observe the rigors of winter cold, the cool air of spring,
and the oppressive heat of midsummer." They kept a shrewd lookout
for the possibilities of future occupation of the land by white men;
and, writing here of country and its character, the journalist says:
"In short, this district affords many advantages to settlers,
and if properly cultivated, would yield every object
necessary for the comfort and subsistence of civilized man."
But in their wildest dreams, Captains Lewis and Clark could not
have foreseen that in that identical region thrifty settlements
of white men should flourish and that the time would come when
the scanty remnant of the Chopunnish, whom we now call Nez Perces,
would be gathered on a reservation near their camping-place.
But both of these things have come to pass.
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