tion. They wounded him several times, which only served to increase his fury; at last he pursued two of them so closely, that they were compelled to provide for their safety by leaping into the river from a perpendicular bank nearly twenty feet high. The bear followed them, and was but a few feet from them, when one of the hunters who had come from his lurking place, sent a ball through his head and killed him. They dragged him to the shore, and there ascertained that not less than eight balls passed through his body.
All the mountain Indians confirm the statement that in winter the bear sucks his paw and lives on his own fat. They say furthermore that before going into winter quarters, namely into the hollow of a rock or of a tree or into some underground hole, he purges himself, then fills himself up with dry seeds, which he does not digest at all. Then he remains lying upon one side for some weeks with the heel of one paw all the time in his mouth, and turns over only four times in the course of the winter.
Tigers [mountain lions?] are very numerous in the regions whence I am writing; but it appears that the fear of man is upon them not less than upon the other animals. Only a few days ago an Indian hunter came back to camp with three fine skins, eight to nine feet in length from the tip of the tail to the nose. He had come upon their tracks, and though armed only with a bow and arrows and accompanied by two small dogs, he had boldly followed them until he found them in a tree, where he had succeeded in killing them with arrows. These animals have extraordinary strength in their tails, and make skillful use of them to choke to death deer, bighorn, elk and other animals which serve them for food.
I remain, etc.