ALL ABOUT ANTELOPE. 11 



that it would be as profitable to follow the south 

 wind. 



" I knew what would be my portion if I came back 

 to camp without meat, especially since my feet were 

 full of cactus thorns and had been cut and bruised 

 by the long tramp over the sand and rocks. I limped 

 painfully back to where I had left my shoes. I went 

 stumbling along, jumping now and then at the sound 

 of a grasshopper, which suggested the wicked whir of 

 a rattler's tail. As I climbed over a knoll I saw an old 

 buck antelope standing near a dozen or more which 

 were lying sunning themselves. The band was on 

 the top of a hill, and the old fellow who was on guard 

 was standing where he could see the whole country 

 in every direction. I got within half a mile of the 

 antelope without being seen. Two or three members 

 of the band appeared to have their heads in the air 

 all the time. They were evidently guards, and the 

 safety of the band depended on their vigilance. 



" Having had no experience as an antelope hunter, I 

 was puzzled. I did not know how to get near them. 

 Concluding that they were no harder to kill than the 

 animals I had hunted since boyhood, I began a care- 

 ful stalk. Crawling about four hundred yards up a 

 ravine, I reached a spot within five hundred yards of 

 the animals, unobserved. Now there was no ravine 

 in which to crawl, so I chose the best ground I could 

 find and began a snake-like movement up the slope. 

 I accepted anything for cover, ant-hills, bunches of 

 grass, cactus bushes, or even little ridges in the sand 

 made by the wind. In this way I made two hun- 

 dred yards in two hours, and had not been seen. 



