![]() The other trappers made him as comfortable as they could, expecting him to expire at any moment. His breathing was labored, and he was bleeding profusely from a number of grave wounds. The trappers fired several balls into the creature, finally bringing it down beside the inert Glass. By the time Glass’s comrades came to his aid, the animal had slashed his face to the bone, and opened long, gaping wounds on his arms, legs, and torso. His single-shot weapon now useless, he took to his feet, but the bear-apparently unfazed by the shot-swiftly overtook him, and brought her claws down on the hapless trapper.Īlthough he hacked away with his knife, he was no match for the creature. As the bear reared upright and charged, Glass fired directly into her chest. He immediately stumbled upon a sow grizzly and her two cubs. According to legend, Hugh Glass-his leg now healed-was scouting ahead of the brigade near the forks of the Grand River, when he entered a thicket to hunt for berries. He calmly supervised the reassembling of his face with rawhide stitches, but he would bear the reminders of the encounter till his death.Īt this juncture, the lack of documentation means we’re relying on oral tradition for the rest of the story. The legendary Jedediah Smith himself had come out second-best in a contest with an angry grizzly, leaving him with several broken ribs, and much of his scalp and one ear hanging by a strip of skin. Even if a man survived a bear attack, he was usually left with physical reminders of the encounter. A full-grown grizzly stood upwards of 12 feet tall, and weighed some three-quarters of a ton. And there were other perils in the mountains that threatened to snuff out a man’s life, and grizzlies-“Old Ephraim,” as the trappers termed them-ranked high on the list. Within a short time, they were set upon by a party of Arikara, leaving 15 of their number dead and “Old Hugh,” as Glass was called, wounded in the leg.īy summer, the trappers were proceeding cautiously overland, their eyes peeled for signs of hostiles. ![]() ![]() Louis in the spring of 1823, making its way up the Missouri River to the “Shining Mountains”-the Rockies-in search of beaver pelts. It is a known fact, however, that he joined the Ashley-Henry fur-trapping brigade when he was around 40, older than middle-aged for his time. Some versions have him sailing as a pirate under the notorious Jean Lafitte. Glass’s life before becoming a mountain man is shrouded in mystery. ![]()
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