Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 2 38 The very next day, after another close encounter during which they saw a grizzly swimming on the river, Lewis said that "I find that the curiossity of our party is pretty well satis- fied with respect to this anamal." Still, he reported, there were yet some members of the expedition who wanted to test their mettle against the bear, and Lewis predicted that they'd get their fill soon enough, when the beasts "begin to coppolate." Indeed, the breeding season had already begun, and con- tact with the bear would grow more frequent, and more dan- gerous. Five days later, a grizzly chased Private William Bratton after he shot it through the lung. Despite its difficulty breath- ing, the bear still loped after Bratton for some distance be- fore breaking off. A breathless Bratton told Lewis, who set off, along with seven other hunters, to kill the "gentleman," an appellation Lewis had begun using to refer to the animal. Landowners were "gentlemen," and there seemed no dis- puting that bears "owned" this land. Lewis and the hunters found the "gentleman" badly wounded, lying in a two-foot deep depression evidently dug during its pained exertions, and killed it. Lewis notes in his journal that the animal's fleece provided them with eight gallons of oil. "[T]hese bear being so hard to die reather intimedates us all; I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and had reather fight two Indians than one bear," he wrote. Never mind that Lewis had never fought any Native Amer- icans (not yet anyway), and that most of the bears they had met, ferocious by nature or not, got considerably more fero- cious after being shot two or three times through the lung with lead balls. It would only be three days before they had another near-disaster. Several men in the rear canoe saw a grizzly ly- ing a short distance from the shore. Six men ("all good hunt- ers," according to Lewis) snuck up on the bear. Four men shot the bear at once while the other two wisely reserved their fire in case the animal survived the initial volley. It did. They both fired. One bullet struck the bear without effect, while the other "broke his shoulder," momentarily slowing him down and giving the men the chance to hide themselves in the canoe and among the willows. They reloaded and fired when they were able to draw a bead, with several more lead balls finding their target. But their shots also announced their location to the enraged bear, who charged after each puff of smoke in turn. As the bear bore down on them, two of the men threw their guns and powder aside and jumped twenty feet down the steep river embankment into the water. "So enraged was this anamal," Lewis wrote, "that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind the second man." Then, as the second man struggled to get away, one of the hunters on the shore managed to reload and fire. This last ball went through the bear's head. After taking the corpse ashore, butchering it and rendering its oil, the men found that they had shot it eight times before it succumbed to its wounds. On June 14th, Lewis would have his own bear en- counter while hunting bison near present-day Riverfront Park in Great Falls. After having discharged his rifle, he had forgotten to reload while "gazeing attentive- ly on the poor anamal," allowing a "large white, or reather brown bear" to get within "20 steps" of him. He wheeled around, raised his rifle—and remem- bered that it was spent. Lewis quickly looked around, even as the bear was approaching. There were no trees, and the bank of the river sloped gently into the water. It would be no hindrance to a grizzly bear. Nevertheless, taking the only option available to him, Lewis ran some 80 yards, and waded into the water up to the depth of his chest. At that depth, he reasoned, he'd be able to stand and use his arms while the bear would be engaging all of his limbs swimming.

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