104 Deer and Antelope of North America 



most part travelled from the Little Missouri Bad 

 Lands into the Black Hills for the winter. 



When I was ranching on that river, however, 

 this custom no longer obtained, for the Black 

 Hills were too well settled, and the herds of prong- 

 buck that wintered there were steadily diminish- 

 ing in numbers. At that time, from 1883 to 1896, 

 the seasonal change in habits, and shift of posi- 

 tion, of the prongbucks were well marked. As 

 soon as the new grass sprang they appeared in 

 great numbers upon the plains. They were espe- 

 cially fond of the green, tender blades that came 

 up where the country had been burned over. If 

 the region had been devastated by prairie fires in 

 the fall, the next spring it was certain to contain 

 hundreds and thousands of prongbucks. All 

 through the summer they remained out on these 

 great open plains, coming to drink at the little 

 pools in the creek beds, and living where there 

 was no shelter of any kind. As winter approached 

 they began to gather in bands. Some of these 

 bands apparently had regular wintering places to 

 the south of us, in Pretty Buttes and beyond ; and 

 close to my ranch, at the crossing of the creek 

 called Beaver, there were certain trails which these 

 antelope regularly travelled, northward in the 

 spring and southward in the fall. But other bands 

 would seek out places in the Bad Lands near by, 

 gathering together on some succession of plateaus 



