58 Hunting the Grisly 



friend Mr. Rockhill, of Maryland, who was 

 the first white man to explore eastern Tibet, 

 describes the large, grisly-like bear of those 

 desolate uplands as having similar habits. 



However, the grisly is a shrewd beast and 

 shows the usual bear-like capacity for adapt- 

 ing himself to changed conditions. He has in 

 most places become a cover-haunting animal, 

 sly in his ways, wary to a degree, and clinging 

 to the shelter of the deepest forests in the 

 mountains and of the most tangled thickets in 

 the plains. Hence he has held his own far 

 better than such game as the bison and elk. 

 He is much less common than formerly, but 

 he is still to be found throughout most of his 

 former range ; save of course in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the large towns. 



In most places the grisly hibernates, or as 

 old hunters say "holes up," during the cold 

 season, precisely as does the black bear; but 

 as with the latter species, those animals which 

 live furthest south spend the whole year 

 abroad in mild seasons. The grisly rarely 

 chooses that favorite den of his little black 

 brother, a hollow tree or log, for his winter 

 sleep, seeking or making some cavernous hole 

 in the ground instead. The hole is sometimes 

 in a slight hillock in a river bottom, but more 



