Reply #11: Amazing animals [View All]

April 07-May 03, 1805

For the first time in their journey, Lewis and Clark were headed in their preferred direction—due west.

They were now in grizzly country. The Indians had warned them about these powerful creatures, but Lewis remained unimpressed. He thought that while grizzlies posed a real danger to Indians armed only with bows and arrows, they would prove no match for a man with a rifle.

On April 29 Lewis changed his mind. That day he and several of his men spotted a pair of grizzlies. They wounded one of the bears, which managed to escape. But the other ran at Lewis, chasing him some 80 yards (73 meters) before he and one of his colleagues were able to reload and kill the bear.