A Trip on the Prairie. 



and can often be killed in great numbers by any one 

 who has found out where they are though a true sports- 

 man will not molest them at this season. 



Sometimes a small number of individuals will at this 

 time get separated from the main herd and take up 

 their abode in some place by themselves ; and when 

 they have once done so it is almost impossible to drive 

 them away. Last winter a solitary prong-horn strayed 

 into the river bottom at the mouth of a wide creek- 

 valley, half a mile from my ranch, and stayed there for 

 three months, keeping with the cattle, and always being 

 found within a mile of the same spot. A little band 

 at the same time established itself on a large plateau, 

 about five miles long by two miles wide, some distance up 

 the river above me, and afforded fine sport to a couple of 

 ranchmen who lived not far from its base. The antelope, 

 twenty or thirty in number, would not leave the plateau, 

 which lies in the midst of broken ground ; for it is a peculi- 

 arity of these animals, which will be spoken of further on, 

 that they will try to keep in the open ground at any cost 

 or hazard. The two ranchmen agreed never to shoot at 

 the antelope on foot, but only to try to kill them from 

 horseback, either with their revolvers or their Winchesters. 

 They thus hunted them for the sake of the sport purely ; 

 and certainly they got plenty of fun out of them. Very 

 few horses indeed are as fast as a prong-horn ; and 

 these few did not include any owned by either of 

 my two friends. But the antelope were always being 

 obliged to break back from the edge of the plateau, 

 and so were forced constantly to offer opportunities 



