220 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



500 to 3,000 Antelope in bands numbering 100 or 200 each. 

 In April, 1879, they were just as plentiful in the same region, 

 also in western Nebraska and in Utah. 



Similar testimony is borne by many travellers for the open 

 country east of the Rockies. 



In the Dakota Badlands, during the early '8o's, they were 

 still abundant. Howard Eaton tells me that in 1884 he saw 

 there as many as 8,000 and 9,000 in a day. Even as late as 

 1896 they abounded in Montana. Dr. Edward L. Munson, 

 of the U. S. Army, gives credence to the report that in the great 

 blizzard of December of that year "40,000 Antelope took 

 shelter in the coulees along Milk River alone in Montana, near 

 his post, Fort Assiniboin," and that between Havre and 

 Glasgow (125 miles) a band of them might be seen every half 

 mile." These probably were the Antelope population of a 

 region a couple of hundred miles across concentrated in the 

 sheltered valley. 



Had they been the entire population of that north end of 

 the range, it would give about one Antelope to the square mile, 

 but we have evidence of many other bands in the country, at 

 least doubling the number; yet we know that Antelope were 

 far from abundant then — in the old-time sense. 



W. N. Byers, of Denver, tells me that in 1868 he witnessed 

 a Ute "surround" of Antelope in North Park, Col., where 

 4,400 Antelope were killed. As the entire Park is 5,000 square 

 miles, only a small part of it could have been driven, and, 

 furthermore, many of those started escaped. We are safe, 

 however, in putting the numbers as high as 3 Antelope per 

 square mile. But the Park was not an ideal place for the 

 species. The snows were too deep for a high rate of population. 

 In the Yellowstone Park proper (3,000 square miles^ about one- 

 third of it Antelope country) there were, according to official 

 estimate, in 1896, 1,000 Antelope — that is, 3 to every square 

 mile. Yet hunters considered them very scarce, and said that 

 it would take 10 times as many (that is, 30 to the square mile) 

 to make really "Antelope country." 



^^ Forest and Stream, January 2, 1897, p. 7. 



