The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1828-08-27
From the ". Y. Euening Post.
A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

There has been some talk in the city of a
remarkable parsonage, who, in passing
through the city Of New York, had deign-
ed to make a short stay here, and to re-
ceive the visits of several eminent and we'll
known citizens. 1t is said that his manner
towards these gentlemen was not indicative
of the greatest cordially that he received
them with a sort of sullen and enforced
civility, saluting them with an inarticulate
growth some instances declining alto
gether to shake hands with them, and in
others yielding them the tips of his fingers,
without any effort to reciprocate the usual
motion. 1t was said, in short, that his
whole demeanor betrayed the greatest in
difference to his visitors, and, it was sup
posed, high degree of dissatisfaction with
his situation.
There is no mistake in all this, although
there is some mystifcation, as will appear
by what follows. Our fellow-citizen, Mr..
]. ]. Aston, short time since, received
request from the directors of the Jardin des
PlanteS in Paris to procure a skin of the
bear of the Rocky Mountains, commonly
called the Grizzly Bear, an animal of which
no specimen has ever been seen in Europe.
Mr.. Aston, instead of procuring a skin caus-
purpose, which has lately been brought to
the city, and will shortly be shipped for
France. In the mean time it has been Wis
tied by several eminent naturalists of this
city, by whom, we understand, scientific
description Of the species will be prepar-
ed for publication in the ANNALS of the
Lyceum."
This animal has never been described by
any European naturalist, the celebrated
Cuvier even doubts of its existence. 1t
has, however, been often mentioned and
figured by American authors, and travellers
in this country, and an imperfect technical
description of it, under the name of prSuS
| horibigis, will be found in the account of
Major Longs expedition to the Rocky
Mountains, in 1919 and 1920. 1t differs
( from every other species of the bear in the
profile of its face, which is nearly rectili-
near, in the great length of the claws on its
fore feet, which it employs with great dex-
terity, and in the remarkable f1exibility of
its snout. 1t is an animal of great fierce
ness, prodigious strength, anu wonderful
tenacity of life. In Major Longs expedi-
ton it is said that " from the concurrent
[ testimony of those who have had an oppor-
)tunity of observing its manners, it is with
out doubt the most daring and formidable
animal that exists in the United States.
He frequently pursues and attacks hunters,
and no animal whose swiftness or art is not
superior can evade him. He kills the bison
and drags the ponderous carcase to dis
lance to devour it at leisure" These bears
were frequently seen and killed by Lewis
and Clark in their expeditions to the mouth
of the Oregon. They killed one which
weighed, as they judged, about six hundred
pounds, and measured eight feet and seven
inches and half from the tip of the nose
to the extremity ofthe hind feet, and which
after having received five balls through his
lungs, and five other wounds, swan to a
considerable distance and survived twenty
minutes. The fore foot of one Of them
measured nine inches across, and his hind
foot was eleven inches and three quarters
in length, and seven inches wide, and a
third had claws six inches and quarter
long. Governor Clinton, in the notes to his
introductory Discourse, published in the
transactions of the New York Literary and
Philosophical Society, says that he had
been told by Dixon the Indian hunter, that
this animal had been seen fourteen feet
long, and notwithstanding its ferocity, had
been domesticated. An insult offered to
these tame bears by striking him, is related
to have produced war between two tribes