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 farthest 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 often on a hill-side, and may be either shallow or deep.

In the mountains it is generally a natural cave in the rock, but among the foothills and on the plains the bear usually has to take some hollow or opening, and then fashion it into a burrow to his liking with his big digging claws.
Before the cold weather sets in the bear begins to grow restless, and to roam about seeking for a good place in which to hole up.