David Thompson, Old Report: Year 1811
David Thompson, the great explorer of the western US and Canada:
On January 7th, 1811, David Thompson, a surveyor and trader for the Northwest Company, attempted to cross the Rocky Mountains near the present day site of Jasper, Alberta. Thompson kept a daily journal, (see T.C. Elliott, "Journal of David Thompson," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 15 (March-June 1914) Thompson also published a work called the "Narrative", which was based on his journals.
In the journal entry for January 7th, 1811, Thompson wrote:
"I saw the track of a large Animal - has 4 large Toes abt 3 or 4 In long & a small nail at the end of each. The Bal of his foot sank abt 3 In deeper than his Toes - the hinder part of his foot did not mark well. The whole is about 14 In long by 8 In wide & very much resembles a large Bear's Track. It was in the Rivulet in about 6 In snow."
40 years later, when he expanded upon this experience in his "Narrative", he wrote:
"January 7th continuing our journey in the afternoon we came on the track of a large animal, the snow about six inches deep on the ice; I measured it; four large toes each of four inches in length, to each a short claw; the ball of the foot sunk three inches lower than the toes. The hinder part of the foot did not mark well, the length fourteen inches, by eight inches in breadth, walking from north to south, and having passed about six hours. We were in no humour to follow him; the Men and Indians would have it to be a young mammouth and I held it to be the track of a large old grizzly bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot, and its great size was not that of a Bear, otherwise that of a very large old Bear, his claws worn away, the Indians would not allow."
In another part of the "Narrative", Thompson brings up this experience:
"I now recur
to what I have already noticed in the early part of last winter, when
proceeding up the Athabasca River to cross the mountains, in company with men
and four hunters, on one of the channels of the River we came to the track
of a large animal, which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches
in breadth by a tape line (14 x 8). As snow was about six inches in depth the track
was well defined and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us,
this animal was proceeding from north to south. We did not attempt to
follow it, we had not time for it, and the Hunters, eager as they are
to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast,
for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal?"
See his narrative (ed. by J. B. Tyrrell, 1916, repr. 1968); biography by J. K. Smith (1971) and this site for more. http://www.davidthompsonthings.com/