The Historic Grizzly

[brotherbear]

Continued...
In his own journal, Clark called this bear "a Brown or Grisley beare" and "the largest of the Carnivorous kind I ever Saw." Lewis noted that after campfire discussion that night:
I find that the curiossity of our party is pretty well satisfyed with rispect to this anamal, the formidable appearance of the male bear killed on the 5th added to the difficulty with which they die when even shot through the vital parts, has staggered the resolution several of them, others however seem keen for action with the bear; I expect these gentlemen will give us some amusement shortly as they soon begin now to coppolate. 

Six days later, on May 11, having passed the mouth of the Milk River - which some biologists of pre-Columbian America believe was a kind of epicenter of grizzly bear range and numbers on the Great Plains, perhaps because it had long been in a buffer zone between warring groups like the Blackfeet, Shoshones, and Mandans where Indian hunting parties seldom ranged - the party had an experience that cemented the evolution in attitudes that was taking place. Once again, let's let Lewis describe it: Reply