Thursday, April 29, 1805:

". . . we fell in with two brown or yellow bear ... one of them made his escape; the other, after firing on him, pursued me 70 or 80 yards but fortunately had been so badly wounded that he was unable to pursue so closely as to prevent my charging my gun. We again repeated our fire and killed him . . . The Indians may well fear this animal, equipped with their bows and arrows or indifferent fusees; but in the hands of skillful riflemen, they are by no means as formidable or dangerous as they have been presented." -- Captain Lewis near present-day Culbertson, Montana.

Of course, Captain Lewis didn't regard crossing 2000 miles of unknown wilderness nearly "as formidable or dangerous as has been presented". Those guys had balls. Happy 200th Anniversary, fellas!

the party continued to have troubles with grizzlies, especially lewis, especially when he reached great falls.

balls indeed!

read on!

Stonecreek,

Thanks for posting. I just started reading the Journals of Lewis & Clark about a week ago.
It is an excellent read and I am enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Have you noticed the references to "white" bears? I thought it was a bit funny that they would
have called grizzlies white bears. The editor tries to help us out here and goes on to say that
L&C were not talking about polar bears.

Regards,
Dave

Some of that stuff is pretty interesting.Here, where I live in Central Idaho,every weekday morning on the local radio station they read pieces of the Lewis and Clark journals from start to finish and then over again.Our local Disc Jockey almost knows it by heart.

Jayco.

Well, being shot by multiple shooters does make them less dangerous.

Does that book or any other for that matter describe the caliber and or type of rifles being used? Wasn't the 36 caliber about normal at that time for the hunters to be using?
Frank

Frank,

I am only about 90+ pages into the text so I can't answer your question fully however, there have not been any references to particular firearms/calibers thus far.


Regards,
Dave

What were they referring to when talking about the "white" grizzlies? Just wondered.

Tim

twm, have you ever heard of griz referred to as "silvertips?"

pow,

Yes. Even been fortunate enough to see a blond grizzly at one point. Just wondered what the opinions were of what L&C saw.

Tim

In the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose the weaponry and other items are described in detail. According to Ambrose, 15 U.S. Model 1803 rifles in .54 caliber were procured from the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and additional rifles of unknown type or caliber from the gunsmiths in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Captain Lewis had the foresight to have the powder for the expedition packaged in containers made of lead, with sufficient lead to produce the appropriate number of projectiles for the quantity of powder. Lewis also had a pneumatic rifle, purchased from a Philadelphia gunsmith named Isaih Lukens.

Skinner,

Those are EXCELLENT links, thanks for sharing!

I'd like to begin reading those manuscripts, it looks fascinating. Can't even imagine what the continent must have been like in those days!

Skinner. Thanks for the great read.
I believe I will have to read about this great Adventure.
Frank

How many round balls would it take to stop these?
Ron
http://community.webshots.com/user/dan_grace

I live just 1/8 mile from where the Dearborn River flows into the Missouri. The Expedition stopped there as well as a few other areas up and downstream from me. For all I know my property may be of National Historical importance as one of the men may have crapped in my yard.
I think that as you continue with the Journal you will find that their first Grizzly went down rather easily compared to a few others that REALLY gave them some trouble. One chased a few of them INTO the River as I recall.

Anyone interested in the L&C Expedition...... if your ever near Great Falls, the L&C Interpretive Center is an absolute MUST SEE. The exhibit really brings home how tough the journey was, how nails tough the men must have been and the primitive gear they used. Surviving year long in the Montana area without gore tex,Filson ,Schnee's pak boots, or modern footwear at all. Amazing of and by itself. Without marauding indians,disease,injury,or bears.

I wish one of the Hollywood types would do a truly accurate mini series on the L& C Expedition . So people could appreciate just what an amazing journey it was.

Frank N in Montana

Frank2,
If you've never seen it get ahold of the Ken Burns documentary series for PBS, Lewis & Clark : The Journey of the Corps of Discovery . Same guy that did The Civil War, Baseball, etc. It's about as good as it gets.

Actually the thought now is that the rifles they had were full or half stock 1797 contract rifles of .490 caliber. A predecessor to the 1803 which was not produced until after they had departed.

And only a few days later, Captain Lewis had developed a little more respect for the "brown bear":

"Captain Clark and Drouilliard killed the largest brown bear . . .It was a most tremendous-looking animal, and extremely hard to kill. Captain Clark thought he would weigh 500 pounds . . . I think the estimate too small by 100 pounds." -- Captain Lewis, near present Wolf Point, Montana, May 5, 1805

"Saw a brown bear swim the river above us. I find that the curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with respect to this animal. The formidable appearance of the male bear kill on the 5th, added to the difficulty with which they die, even when shot through the vital parts, has staggered the resolution of several of them. Others, however seem keen for action with the bear." -- Captain Lewis, near Milk River, Montana, May 6,1805

Yep, those bears can be a might hard to kill. Just like people today, some of the L & C crew had had their fill of grizzlies by this time, and others were rarin' for more.