212 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



Ranchmen often suffer some loss among their 

 stock owing to snake-bites; both horned cattle and 

 horses, in grazing, frequently coming on snakes and 

 having their noses or cheeks bitten. Generally, 

 these wounds are not fatal, though very uncomfor- 

 table ; it is not uncommon to see a woe-begone look- 

 ing mule with its head double the natural size, in 

 consequence of having incautiously browsed over a 

 snake. A neighbor lost a weak pony in this way; 

 and one of our best steers also perished from the 

 same cause. But in the latter case, the animal, 

 like the poor girl spoken of above, had received two 

 wounds with the poison fangs; apparently it had, 

 while grazing with its head down, been first struck 

 in the nose, and been again struck in the foreleg as 

 it started away. 



Of all kinds of hunting, the chase of the antelope 

 is pre-eminently that requiring skill in the use of 

 the rifle at long range. The distance at which shots 

 have to be taken in antelope hunting is at least 

 double the ordinary distance at which deer are fired 

 at. In pursuing most other kinds of game, a hunter 

 who is not a good shot may still do excellent work; 

 but in prong-horn hunting, no man can make even 

 -a fairly good record unless he is a skilful marks- 

 man. I have myself done but little hunting after 

 antelopes, and have not, as a rule, been very suc- 

 cessful in the pursuit. 



Ordinary hounds are rarely, or never, used to 

 chase this game; but coursing it with greyhounds is 

 as manly and exhilarating a form of sport as can be 



