A Trip on the Prairie. 201 



to get nearer I rested my rifle over a little mound of earth 

 and fired. The dust came up in a puff to one side of 

 the nearest antelope ; the whole band took a few jumps 

 and turned again ; the second shot struck at their feet, and 

 they went off like so many race-horses, being missed again 

 as they ran. I sat up by a sage-brush thinking they would 

 of course not come back, when to my surprise I saw them 

 wheel round with the precision of a cavalry squadron, all 

 in line and fronting me, the white and brown markings 

 on their heads and throats showing like the facings on 

 soldiers' uniforms ; and then back they came charging up 

 till again within long range, when they wheeled their line 

 as if on a pivot and once more made off, this time for 

 good, not heeding an ineffectual fusillade from the Win- 

 chester. Antelope often go through a series of regular 

 evolutions, like so many trained horsemen, wheeling, turn- 

 ing, halting, and running as if under command ; and their 

 coming back to again run the (as it proved very harmless) 

 gauntlet of my fire was due either to curiosity or to one of 

 those panicky freaks which occasionally seize those ordi- 

 narily wary animals, and cause them to run into danger 

 easily avoided by creatures commonly much more readily 

 approached than they are. I had fired half a dozen shots 

 without effect ; but while no one ever gets over his feeling 

 of self-indignation at missing an easy shot at close quarters, 

 any one who hunts antelope and is not of a disposition so 

 timid as never to take chances, soon learns that he has to 

 expect to expend a good deal of powder and lead before 

 bagging his game. 



By mid-day we reached a dry creek and followed up its 



