228 ANTELOPES. 



side. Having driven the game cautiously forwards 

 they formed a ring, and then advanced, gradually, 

 urging the troop to the edge of the precipice. "When 

 arrived there, they burst into loud and repeated 

 yells, which were echoed and re-echoed far and near, 

 from every wood and cave in all that lonely region. 

 The timid herd, frightened at the unusual clamour, 

 knew not where to run, but rushing on sudden de- 

 struction, sprang tumultuously over the brink of 

 the precipice, and were destroyed in their fall. 

 Upwards of sixty cabree, as they are called by the 

 Indians, were taken in this manner. 



Two species belong to this group, the Palmated 

 Antelope, A. palmata, which inhabits the bleak re- 

 gions near the Frozen Ocean, whence the tribe 

 extends as far as the Stony Mountains and the river 

 Jaune; and the Prong-horned Antelope (A. fur- 

 oifer\ that affects the borders of the Missouri, the 

 north-western territory of the' United States, and 

 the Great Plains of the Columbia; a creature swift 

 of foot, and often seen to dart along the brink of 

 terrific precipices without stopping or looking back. 



Magnificent creature ! so stately and bright, 

 In the pride of thy spirit pursuing thy flight ; 

 For what hath the child of the desert to dread. 

 Wafting up his own mountains that far-beaming head, 

 Or borne like a whirlwind down on the vale ? 

 Hail ! king of the wild and the beautiful, hail ! 

 Hail ! creature superb, whom Nature hath borne 

 O'er a hundred hill-tops since the mist of the morn ; 

 "Whom the pilgrim, lone wandering o'er mountain and moor, 

 As the vision glides by him, may almost adore ; 

 For the joy of the happy, the strength of the free, 

 Are spread in a garment of beauty o'er thee. 



