d although not so
tall, it must have weighed quite as much as a good-sized bullock. Its
width of shoulder and apparent strength were enormous, and they have
never yet been tamed: Mr Van Amburgh would be puzzled to handle one of
them. The Indians reckon the slaying of one of these animals as a much
greater feat than killing a man, and the proudest ornament they can wear
is a necklace of the grizzly bear's claws.

I for myself, must confess, that I had rather be attacked by, and take
my chance with, three men than by one of these animals, as they are
seldom killed by the first or even the second bullet. It requires
numbers to overcome them. The largest lion, or Bengal tiger, would
stand but a poor chance, if opposed to one of these animals full grown.
One of the gentlemen employed by the Fur Company told me, that he once
saw a grizzly bear attack a bull buffalo, and that, at the first
seizure, he tore one of the ribs of the buffalo out of his side, and
eventually carried away the whole carcass, without much apparent effort.
They are only to be found in the rocky mountains, and valleys between
them, when the game is plentiful.

Visited the museum. There were once five large alligators to be seen
alive in this museum; but they are now all dead. One demands our
sympathy, as there was something Roman in his fate. Unable to support
such a life of confinement, and preferring death to the loss of liberty,
he committed suicide by throwing himself out of a three-storey-high
window. He was taken up from the pavement the next morning; the vital
spark had fled, as the papers say, and, I believe, his remains were
decently interred.

The other four, never having been taught in their youth the hymn, "Birds
in their little nests agree," fought so desperately, that one by one
they all died of their wounds. They were very large, being from
seventeen to twenty-one feet long. One, as a memorial, remains
preserved in the museum, and to make him look more poetical, he has a
stuffed negro in his mouth.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

Thank Heaven I have escaped from St Louis; during the time that I
remained in that city, I was, day and night, so melting away, that I
expected, like some of the immortal half-breeds of Jupiter, to become a
tributary stream to the Mississippi.

As you descend the river the land through which it flows becomes more
level and flat, while the size of the forest trees increases; the log
houses of