194 A Trip on the Prairie. 



hearing their rattles, plunging and rearing and refusing to 

 go anywhere near the spot ; while others have no fear 

 of them at all, being really perfectly stupid about them. 

 Manitou does not lose his wits at all over them, but at 

 the same time takes very good care not to come within 

 striking distance. 



Ranchmen often suffer some loss among their stock 

 owing to snake-bites ; both horned cattle and horses, in 

 grazing, frequently coming on snakes and having their 

 noses or cheeks bitten. Generally, these wounds are not 

 fatal, though very uncomfortable ; it is not uncommon to 

 see a woe-begone looking mule with its head double the 

 natural size, in consequence of having incautiously browsed 

 over a snake. A neighbor lost a weak pony in this way ; 

 and one of our best steers also perished from the same 

 cause. But in the latter case, the animal, like the poor 

 girl spoken of above, had received two wounds with the 

 poison fangs ; apparently it had, while grazing with its 

 head down, been first struck in the nose, and been again 

 struck in the foreleg as it started away. 



Of all kinds of hunting, the chase of the antelope is 

 pre-eminently that requiring skill in the use of the rifle at 

 long range. The distance at which shots have to be taken 

 in antelope hunting is at least double the ordinary dis- 

 tance at which deer are fired at. In pursuing most other 

 kinds of game, a hunter who is not a good shot may still 

 do excellent work; but in prong-horn hunting, no man 

 can make even a fairly good record unless he is a skilful 

 marksman. I have myself done but little hunting after 

 antelopes, and have not, as a rule, been very successful in 

 the pursuit. 



