74 Hunting the Grisly 



with half-luxurious, half-laborious greed, sit- 

 ting on their haunches, and sweeping the ber- 

 ries into their mouths with dexterous paws. 

 So absorbed do they become in their feasts on 

 the luscious fruit that they grow reckless of 

 their safety, and feed in broad daylight, al- 

 most at midday; while in some of the thickets, 

 especially those of the mountain haws, they 

 make so much noise in smashing the branches 

 that it is a comparatively easy matter to ap- 

 proach them unheard. That still-hunter is in 

 luck who in the fall finds an accessible berry- 

 covered hillside which is haunted by bears; 

 but, as a rule, the berry bushes do not grow 

 close enough together to give the hunter much 

 chance. 



Like most other wild animals, bears which 

 have known the neighborhood of man are 

 beasts of the darkness, or at least of the dusk 

 and the gloaming. But they are by no means 

 such true night-lovers as the big cats and the 

 wolves. In regions where they know little of 

 hunters they roam about freely in the day- 

 light, and in cool weather are even apt to take 

 their noontide slumbers basking in the sun. 

 Where they are much hunted they finally al- 

 most reverse their natural habits and sleep 

 throughout the hours of light, only venturing 



