TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 243 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



REGARDING THE ANTELOPE FAMILY. 



Twenty years ago the Western plains were covered with 

 antelopes (antelocapra Americana). Both in the foothills 

 and in the valleys they were to be seen in countless numbers. 

 The antelope is beautiful in body, pleasing in flavor, and as 

 fleet as a race-horse. Its sides are white, its back is red. Tht 

 short mane is black, as are also the stripes about the head. 

 It has by far the keenest vision of all the animals of the 

 plains. The horns appear just above the eyes, standing well 

 out upon the head. They are hooked on the point with a 

 short spur, or guard, standing at right angles with the main 

 beam. These sharp points are used as weapons, and some- 

 times in battle, they become locked with the curved hooks of 

 others of their kind, when both animals die from thirst and 

 starvation. 



The horns are annually shed, despite the statements of 

 all the encyclopedias. This has been proven to the satisfac- 

 tion of fair-minded investigators and is here shown to be a 

 fact by an illustration of a head of an antelope killed by the 

 author in 1877. This shedding "of the outside sheath takes 

 place in the latter part of December or early in January, leav- 

 ing a velvety covering on the pith or stump. This soon be- 

 comes hard and polished and grows another bony sheath, 

 similar to the one shed. In the fall the old horn begins to 

 absorb at the base, and close to the head, the hair grows out 



