Coursing the Prongbuck 



tired, it would often lead them a hard chase, 

 and the dogs would be utterly exhausted after 

 it had been killed; so that we would have 

 to let them lie where they were for a long 

 time before trying to lead them down to 

 some stream-bed. If possible, we carried 

 water for them in canteens. 



There were red-letter days, however, in 

 which our dogs fairly ran down and killed 

 antelope, — days when the weather was cool, 

 and when it happened that we got our dogs 

 out to the ground without their being tired 

 by previous runs, and found our quarry soon, 

 and in favorable places for slipping the 

 hounds. I remember one such chase in par- 

 ticular. We had at the time a mixed pack, 

 in which there was only one dog of my own, 

 the others being contributed from various 

 sources. It included two greyhounds, a 

 rough-coated deerhound, a foxhound, and 

 the fawn-colored crossbred mentioned above. 



We rode out in the early morning, the 

 dogs trotting behind us ; and, coming to a 

 low tract of rolling hills, just at the edge of 

 the great prairie, we separated and rode over 

 the crest of the nearest ridge. Just as we 

 137 



