204 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



remarkably good dog can run one down single- 

 handed. Besides prong-horn are most plucky little 

 creatures, and will make a most resolute fight against 

 a dog or wolf, striking with their fore-feet and 

 punching with their not very formidable horns, and 

 are so quick and wiry as to be really rather hard to 

 master. 



Antelope have the greatest objection to going on 

 anything but open ground, and seem to be absolutely 

 unable to make a high jump. If a band is caught 

 feeding in the bottom of a valley leading into a 

 plain they invariably make a rush straight to the 

 mouth, even if the foe is stationed there, and will 

 run heedlessly by him, no matter how narrow the 

 mouth is, rather than not try to reach the open coun- 

 try. It is almost impossible to force them into even 

 a small patch of brush, and they will face almost 

 certain death rather than try to leap a really very 

 trifling obstacle. If caught in a glade surrounded 

 by a slight growth of brushwood, they make no ef- 

 fort whatever to get through or over this growth, 

 but dash frantically out through the way by which 

 they got in. Often the deer, especially the black-tail, 

 will wander out on the edge of the plain frequented 

 by antelope ; and it is curious to see the two animals 

 separate the second there is an alarm, the deer mak- 

 ing for the broken country, while the antelope scud 

 for the level plains. Once two of my men nearly 

 caught a couple of antelope in their hands. They 

 were out driving in the buckboard, and saw two 

 antelope, a long distance ahead, enter the mouth 



