Big Game Shooting 265 



Antelope (the Prongbuck) were also plentiful in 

 Southern California, and we have seen them on our 

 ranch (and have shot them on the Carisa Plains 

 beyond) ; but to-day they are very scarce on the 

 Pacific Slope, and in California it is against the 

 law to shoot them at all. I have shot a great 

 many, and have watched large herds of them 

 in Wyoming and Colorado. In California the 

 vaqueros used to ride them down, an easy feat, 

 if you have a horse that can both gallop and 

 stay. 



Antelope gave me my first attack of buck fever. 

 I was in a country where the antelope were ex- 

 traordinarily plentiful, but I could not manage 

 to hit one. I could smash a small bottle at a 

 hundred and fifty yards easily enough; an ante- 

 lope at the same range laughed at my bullets. 

 However, I persevered, and one morning killed 

 a fine buck stone dead. After that my nerve 

 came back. 



Sheep and goat are considered hard stalking, but 

 they are easily killed under certain conditions. 

 Once, in the Selkirks, I shot six goats in as many 

 minutes. I was above them, and when I fired, the 

 herd ran straight at me. I could have clubbed 

 one easily. It is well to mention that I had spent 

 nearly ten hours in reaching my coign of vantage, 

 an almost inaccessible peak. One of the goats fell 

 two thousand feet after I had shot him; and I 

 nearly followed him over the precipice, for the 

 snow at my feet was crumbly and slippery, and a 

 loose shale lay beneath. For the week preceding, 

 my brothers and I had worn out shoe leather and 



