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 by a cut bank on one side and a wall of gnarled
cottonwoods 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 have seen or smelt us, for though we laid in wait for
it long and patiently, it did not come back to its place; nor, on our
subsequent visits, did we ever find traces of its having done so.
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