ioo Deer and Antelope of North America 



portions of the Missouri there are plenty of white- 

 tails yet left in the river bottoms, while the mule- 

 deer that once dwelt in the broken hills behind 

 them, and the prongbuck which lived on the 

 prairie just back of these bluffs, have both disap- 

 peared. In the same way the mule-deer and 

 the prongbuck are often found almost intermin- 

 gled through large regions in which plains, hills, 

 and mountains alternate. If such a region is 

 mainly mountainous, but contains a few valleys 

 and tablelands, the prongbuck is sure to vanish 

 from the latter before the mule-deer vanishes from 

 the broken country. But if the region is one 

 primarily of plains, with here and there rows of 

 rocky hills in which the mule-deer is found, the 

 latter is killed off long before the prongbuck can 

 be hunted out of the great open stretches. The 

 same is true of the pronghorn and the wapiti. The 

 size and value of the wapiti make it an object of 

 eager persecution on the part of hunters. But 

 as it can live in the forest-clad fastnesses of the 

 Rockies, into which settlement does not go, it 

 outlasts over great regions the pronghorn, whose 

 abode is easily penetrated by sheep and cattle men. 

 Under anything like even conditions, however, 

 the prongbuck, of course, outlasts the wapiti. 

 This was the case on the Little Missouri. On 

 that stream the bighorn also outlasted the wapiti. 

 In 1 88 1 wapiti were still much more plentiful 



