A Trip on the Prairie 209 



ren may be the desert in which antelope are found, 

 it may be taken for granted that they are always 

 within reaching distance of some spring or pool of 

 water, and that they visit it once a day. Once or 

 twice I have camped out by some pool, which was 

 the only one for miles around, and in every such 

 case have been surprised at night by the visits of the 

 antelope, who, on finding that their drinking-place 

 was tenanted, would hover round at a short dis- 

 tance, returning again and again and continually ut- 

 tering the barking "kau, kau," until they became 

 convinced that there was no hope of their getting 

 in, when they would set off at a run for some other 

 place. 



Prong-horn perhaps prefer the rolling prairies 

 of short grass as their home, but seem to do almost 

 equally well on the desolate and monotonous wastes 

 where the sage brush and prickly pear and a few 

 blades of coarse grass are the only signs of plant 

 life to be seen. In such places, the prong-horn, the 

 sage cock, the rattlesnake, and the horned frog alone 

 are able to make out a livelihood. 



The horned frog is not a frog at all, but a lizard, 

 a queer, stumpy little fellow with spikes all over 

 the top of its head and back, and given to moving 

 in the most leisurely manner imaginable. Nothing 

 will make it hurry. If taken home it becomes a very 

 tame and quaint but also very uninteresting little 

 pet. 



Rattlesnakes are only too plentiful everywhere; 

 along the river bottoms, in the broken, hilly ground, 



