The Wrestle - Part Two

The death match between Mountain Man Hugh Glass and the silver-tipped she-grizzly has been described in a variety of ways. Frederick Manfred in Lord Grizzly describes a scene where a startled Hugh is stripped of his firearms by the equally startled grizzly.

"She cuffed at the gun in his hands as if she knew what it was for. As it whirled into the bushes, it went off in the air, the ball whacking harmlessly into the white sand at their feet.
Hugh next clawed for his horse pistol.
Again, she seemed to know what it was for. She cuffed the pistol out of his hand too."

The bear claws the Mountain Man "like a heavyweight trying to give a lightweight a going-over in a clinch."

At this point, Frederick Manfred has a badly wounded Hugh getting inside the reach of the enormous bear, wrapping her in his own bear hug in order to keep out of the way of her deadly claws. As Hugh holds on he stabs frantically with his skinning knife. Eventually the grizzly succumbs to the multiple knife wounds and falls dead over the mangled body of  Hugh Glass.

John Myers speculates in The Saga of Hugh Glass that Hugh got off a shot before being mauled. Myers points out that grizzly bears do not attack with their teeth but rather with their terribly armed forepaws. In order to do this the grizzly bear will rise up on its hind legs to a full height of nine feet.  Because of  this method of attack an experienced hunter like Hugh Glass would have been able to get off a shot.  The shot mortally wounded the bear but not before it  nearly ripped the Mountain Man to death.

Other accounts have members of Hugh's expedition coming to his aid after hearing his shrieks. There may have been one or two other hunters in the near vicinity and they may have helped finish off the grizzly.

Some reports claim the bear was protecting two cubs. If there were cubs  in the area they probably would have been killed by Hugh's fellow trappers.

What is known for sure is that after the wrestle the she-grizzly was dead and Hugh Glass was terribly wounded. He was bitten and clawed on his already injured leg, back, and throat. The other trappers were stunned to hear his shallow, raspy breaths as he held on to the barest thread of life. All agreed it was only a matter of time until Old Hugh would be food for the wolves.