EARLY DAY STORIES. 217 



ably both. Coming to the brow of a small hill that sloped 

 gently to a little valley before me, I placed the tripod in 

 position, adjusted the levels, reversed the instrument so as 

 to get a back sight in order to correct my bearings, then 

 taking a peep ahead upon the line I was tracing I noticed 

 for the first time a doe antelope not more than thirty steps 

 away, and directly upon the line I was following. Probably 

 she had been lying down in the grass and did not get up until 

 I had adjusted the compass. She turned her head and looked 

 at me, and then instantly looked in another direction and 

 began to stamp one of her fore feet. Her actions puzzled 

 me, for I had never seen anything just like it before. I 

 watched her probably five minutes before I could make out 

 what the trouble was. Occasionally she would look toward 

 me, but most of the time she seemed to be watching some 

 thing beyond in the grass. Finally I saw something moving 

 in the grass, in the direction she was looking, but could not 

 tell what it was. Leaving the compass I approached the 

 antelope, but when I had covered about half the distance 

 between us, she bounded away, but did not go far before 

 she stopped and turned to look. Where she had been stand- 

 ing was a little fawn which could not have been more than 

 half an hour old for it was not as yet fully dried off. Beyond 

 in the grass in the direction the antelope had been looking, 

 a skunk was at work digging for grubs. I undertook to 

 drive him away, but this did not work well. However, I 

 succeeded after a while in getting him to chase me, finally 

 leaving him twenty or more rods away from the young an- 

 telope. The old one did not go back to her fawn again while 

 I was in sight, but watched from the top of a little knoll not 

 far away. Evidently she feared the skunk more than she 

 feared me. I have been told by old plainsmen that an ante- 

 lope will kill a rattlesnake by jumping on it with its fore 

 feet. I do not know whether this is true or not, but I do 

 believe, judging from the actions of this antelope, that it 

 would have attacked the skunk had it approached the fawn. 



