ible 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 daylight, and in cool weather are even apt to
take their noontide slumbers basking in the sun. Where they are much
hunted they finally almost reverse their natural habits and sleep
throughout the hours of light, only venturing abroad after nightfall and
before sunrise; but even yet this is not the habit of those bears which
exist in the wilder localities where they are still plentiful. In these
places they sleep, or at least rest, during the hours of greatest heat,
and again in the middle part of the night, unless there is a full moon.
They start on their rambles for food about mid-afternoon, and end their
morning roaming soon after the sun is above the horizon. If the moon is
full, however, they may feed all night long, and then wander but little
in the daytime.

Aside from man, the full-grown grisly has hardly any foe to fear.
Nevertheless, in the early spring, when weakened by the hunger that
succeeds the winter sleep, it behooves even the grisly, if he dwells in
the mountain fastnesses of the far northwest, to beware of a famished
troop of great timber wolves. These northern Rocky Mountain wolves are
most formidable beasts, and when many of them band together in times of
famine they do not hesitate to pounce on the black bear and cougar; and
even a full-grown grisly is not safe from their attacks, unless he can
back up against some rock which will prevent them from assailing him
from behind. A small ranchman whom I knew well, who lived near Flathead
Lake, once in April found where a troop of these wolves had killed a
good-sized yearling grisly. Either cougar or wolf will make a prey of a
grisly which is but a few months old; while any fox, lynx, wolverine,
or fisher will seize the very young cubs. The old story about wolves
fearing to feast on game killed by a grisly is all nonsense. Wolves are
canny beasts, and they will not approach a carcass if they think a bear
is hidden near by and likely to rush out at them; but under ordinary
circumstances they will feast not