weighed 300 pounds. "Young bear," declared Drouillard. Everybody crowded about, to examine its fur (which was not white at all, but was yellowish), its long claws and tusks, its little, deep-set black eyes.
"Dis chile dunno," stammered York, his own eyes popping. "Mebbe he ain't gwine to look foh dis kind ob b'ar. If he jes' a young b'ar, what mought his daddy be? Hoo!"
"Don't you or the men take any chances with these animals, Will," cautioned Captain Lewis, to Captain Clark. "There are lots of signs of them now."
Captain Clark and Reuben Fields did take a chance, a few days later. In the dusk they met a monster brown bear (which was a better name for it than white bear, although grizzly bear is better still) not far from the evening camp. When they shot together, he roared so loudly that the very air shook, but fortunately he tried to escape. They followed him and shot him eight times more; and even then he swam clear into the middle of the river, and died on a sand-bar.
It was quite a job to get him into camp. He weighed about 600 pounds. The captains measured him. From his hind feet to his nose was eight feet, seven and a half inches; he was five feet, seven and a half inches around the chest, three feet, eleven inches around the neck, and one foot, eleven inches around the fore-legs! His heart was as large as an ox-heart, and his claws four and one-half inches in length.
