Hugh Glass E-Book

Charles M. Russell

• Herausgeber: Charles M. Russell
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926),also known as Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an artist of the Old American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. Known as 'the cowboy artist',Russell was also a storyteller and author.Hugh Glass (1780–1833) was an American fur trapper and frontiersman who was mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions. He crawled about 200 miles (320 km) over six weeks to reach Fort Kiowa.Glass was born in Pennsylvania to Scots-Irish parents from Ireland. An explorer of the watershed of the Upper Missouri River in present-day Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and the Platte River area of Nebraska.Glass's life before the bear attack is uncertain. His life story is noted for its frequent embellishment. He was reported to have been captured by privateers under the command of Jean Lafitte off the coast of Texas in 1816 and forced to become a pirate for up to two years. He allegedly escaped by swimming to shore near what is today Galveston, Texas. Glass is later rumored to have been captured by Pawnee Native Americans with whom he lived for several years. He eventually wed a Native American woman. He traveled to St. Louis in 1821, accompanying several Pawnee delegates invited to meet with United States authorities.In August 1823, near the forks of the Grand River in present-day Perkins County, South Dakota, while scouting for game for the expedition's larder, Glass surprised a grizzly bear with two cubs. The bear charged, picked him up, and threw him to the ground. Glass managed to kill the bear with help from his trapping partners, Fitzgerald and Bridger, but was left badly mauled and unconscious. Ashley (who was also with them) became convinced he would not survive his injuries. 

Leseprobe

Hugh Glass

The Revenant

By Charles M. Russell

(1864-1926)

Hugh Glass, Frontiersman, Attacked by Grizzly Bear

HUGH GLASS

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL

THE king of wild beasts of the Rocky Mountains is the grizzly bear. While seldom encountered today excepting in the remotest and most inaccessible fastnesses of the Rockies, this monarch of the wilderness a century ago was the one animal which hunters and trappers considered really dangerous. Grizzlies were called by the earlier explorers "white bear," and many were the narrow escapes related by members of the Lewis and Clark party and other frontiersmen who were attacked by monsters of this species and threatened with death in a terrible form. There were few among the mountain men who had not had disastrous experiences with them at one time or another.   The grizzly bear is distinguished from other species of bear by a number of marked characteristics, such as facial profile, shape of anterior claws, color of hair and its lack of ability to climb trees. The color varies greatly, but there is usually enough white hair in its fur to give it a grayish color. In size the grizzly averages about six feet in length from nose to tail tip, although they have often been found nine feet, and some have measured as much as fourteen feet in length.  A grizzly usually weights about five hundred pounds, but of course the larger specimens weigh much more.

It is not only a most powerful brute, but is extremely tenacious of life. The male has the reputation of not being pugnacious, rarely attacking a man without provocation, and even when wounded often attempting to escape until brought to bay. The female, when her cubs are small, is savage and dangerous always. Either sex of the grizzly, when thoroughly roused, shows terrible rage and strength. Hunters have often noticed that when struck by a bullet, a grizzly will start instantly in the direction from which it comes without waiting to see its enemy.

The most notable story of an encounter between a white man and a grizzly was that of Hugh Glass. Possibly this true tale, which was one of the most  sensational happenings of the frontier a hundred years ago, has survived in the  annals of the fur days because of the amazing facts involved in it that have to do  with treachery and a man's grim fight to live to be revenged.