68 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



most desperate straits for food, as even a vic- 

 tory over such an antagonist must be pur- 

 chased with heavy loss of life ; and a hungry 

 grisly would devour either a wolf or a cougar, 

 or any one of the smaller carnivora off-hand 

 if it happened to corner it where it could not 

 get away. 



The grisly occasionally makes its den in a 

 cave and spends therein the midday hours. 

 But this is rare. Usually it lies in the dense 

 shelter of the most tangled piece of woods in 

 the neighborhood, choosing by preference some 

 bit where the young growth is thick and the 

 ground strewn with boulders and fallen logs. 

 Often, especially if in a restless mood and 

 roaming much over the country, it merely 

 makes a temporary bed, in which it lies but 

 once or twice ; and again it may make a more 

 permanent lair or series of lairs, spending 

 many consecutive nights in each. Usually 

 the lair or bed is made some distance from the 

 feeding ground ; but bold bears, in very wild 

 localities, may lie close by a carcass, or in the 

 middle of a berry ground. The deer-killing 

 bear above mentioned had evidently dragged 

 two or three of his victims to his den, which 

 was under an impenetrable mat of bull-berries 

 and dwarf box-alders, hemmed in by a cut 

 bank on one side and a wall of gnarled cot- 

 tonwoods on the other. Round this den, and 

 rendering it noisome,were scattered the bones 

 of several deer and a young steer or heifer. 

 When we found it we thought we could easily 

 kill the bear, but the fierce, cunning beast must 



