The Prongborn Antelope m 



weapons, they are bold little creatures, and if 

 given a chance will stand at bay before either 

 hound or coyote. A doe will fight most gallantly 

 for her fawn, and is an overmatch for a single 

 coyote, but of course she can do but little against 

 a large wolf. The wolves are occasionally very 

 destructive to the herds. The cougar, however, 

 which is a much worse foe than the wolf to deer 

 and mountain sheep, can but rarely molest the 

 prongbuck, owing to the nature of the latter's 

 haunts. Eagles, on occasion, take the fawns as 

 they do those of deer. 



I have always been very fond of the chase of the 

 prongbuck. While I lived on my ranch on the 

 Little Missouri it was, next to the mule-deer, 

 the game which I most often followed, and on the 

 long wagon trips which I occasionally took from 

 my ranch to the Black Hills, to the Big Horn 

 Mountains, or into eastern Montana, prongbuck 

 venison was our usual fresh meat, save when we 

 could kill prairie-chickens and ducks with our 

 rifles, which was not always feasible. In my 

 mind the prongbuck is always associated with the 

 open prairies during the spring, summer, or the 

 early fall. It has happened that I have generally 

 pursued the bighorn in bitter weather ; and when 

 we laid in our stock of winter meat, mule-deer was 

 our usual game. Though I have shot prongbuck 

 in winter, I never liked to do so, as I felt the ani- 



