220 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



again run the (as it proved very harmless) gantlet 

 of my fire was due either to curiosity or to one of 

 those panicky freaks which occasionally seize those 

 ordinarily wary animals, and cause them to run into 

 danger easily avoided by creatures commonly much 

 more readily approached than they are. I had fired 

 half a dozen shots without effect; but while no one 

 ever gets over his feeling of self-indignation at miss- 

 ing an easy shot at close quarters, any one who hunts 

 antelope and is not of a disposition so timid as never 

 to take chances, soon learns that he has to expect 

 to expend a good deal of powder and lead before 

 bagging his game. 



By midday we reached a dry creek and followed 

 up its course for a mile or so, till a small spot of 

 green in the side of a bank showed the presence of 

 water, a little pool of which lay underneath. The 

 ground was so rotten that it was with difficulty I 

 could get Manitou down where he could drink; but 

 at last both of us satisfied our thirst, and he was 

 turned loose to graze, with his saddle off, so as to 

 cool his back, and I, after eating a biscuit, lay on 

 my face on the ground there was no shade of any 

 sort near and dozed until a couple of hours' rest 

 and feed had put the horse in good trim for the after- 

 noon ride. When it came to crossing over the dry 

 creek on whose bank we had rested, we almost went 

 down in a quicksand, and it was only by frantic 

 struggles and flounderings that we managed to get 

 over. 



On account of these quicksands and mud-holes, 



