72 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
Over many portions of this range they roamed in uncount- 
able herds. To-day over the same territory a few thousand 
are able to exist, solely on account of the absolute protection 
that they are given in our western provinces and all of the 
States. It is the same story of extermination following the 
advent of man armed with rifles and the extension of agri- 
culture. The settlement of the country and the construc- 
tion of railroads have also introduced a new factor, namely 
the wire-fence, that has had a very marked effect in con- 
fining the remaining herds to restricted areas and thus pre- 
venting their normal migration. 
One visitor to the West in the early ‘‘seventies” has de- 
scribed to me how the prairie seemed to vibrate with the 
galloping of these swift little creatures, and how they were 
slaughtered to such an extent that their outstretched car- 
casses were piled in heaps like cord-wood. 
Not only is it the most graceful of the hoofed animals of 
America, but it is so unique in its characters that it con- 
stitutes the sole member of a special family found nowhere 
else in the world. On that account alone its extinction 
would be a calamity. Its chief title to scientific distinction 
consists in the fact that like the cattle tribe it has hollow 
horns, but unlike them it sheds the outside sheath each year, 
just as the members of the deer tribe shed their antlers. In 
the latter case it is the whole horn or antler that is shed; but 
in the case of the antelope only the outer sheath of the horn 
is shed. The inner core remains and gives rise to the new 
horn, which is pronged; and hence the name, ‘‘pronghorn,” 
by which the species is more correctly known, as the animal 
is not a true antelope. 
Scarcely more than three feet at the shoulder in height, 
these little animals are well adapted to the life of the great 
plains. One of their striking peculiarities is the possession 
of a white chrysanthemum-like patch of hair on the rump. 
This hair is erectile at will and serves as an excellent sig- 
