FIGHT WITH A RATTLESNAKE. 19 



her of the party, being four feet eight inches long 

 and proportionately thick, resembling a bull-snake. 

 After supper Dyche told his story of the capture. 



" Seeing a band of antelope on the top of some chalk 

 bluffs, I slipped along to get a shot at them. As I 

 went carefully over a ledge I heard something drop 

 behind me, and looked around in time to see this big 

 fellow coiling for another spring. He had jumped 

 at me from a secluded place in the rocks, and missed 

 my foot as I stepped on a projecting shelf. I went 

 up the side of that bluff in a hurry, thinking nothing 

 more about the antelope. I had my insect net with 

 me, and thought he would be a fine fellow to capture 

 alive; so I made a cast, covering him completely, 

 much to his surprise, but I was the most surprised of 

 the two before he got through with the net, for it 

 was hardly a second before the snake had coiled and 

 torn the net to pieces. He struck it viciously several 

 times, and then began looking for me. I dropped a 

 big flat rock on his back, which I thought would 

 crush the life out of him, but he came out from under 

 that rock in a hurry, mad clear through. He struck 

 the rock several times, leaving great green splotches 

 of venom on it. I was considerably worked up my- 

 self by this time, and began pouring such a fire of 

 rocks upon him that I soon put him where he could 

 do no harm. 



" I tried to flag some antelope to-day, but they had 

 been tried before. I saw a fawn in a patch of grass, 

 and as he was a little fellow I thought I could catch 

 him. He saw me and went out of sight like a shot, 

 and I then heard a doe on the slope above me utter- 



