Hunting the Prong-Buck 93 



the antelope I aimed at or another. Yet that same 

 day I killed three more bucks at decidedly long shots ; 

 at the time we lacked meat at the ranch, and were out 

 to make a good killing. 



Besides their brute and human foes, the prong- 

 horn must also fear the elements, and especially the 

 snows of winter. On the northern plains the cold 

 weather is of polar severity, and turns the green, 

 grassy prairies of midsummer into iron-bound 

 wastes. The blizzards whirl and sweep across them 

 with a shrieking fury which few living things may 

 face. The snow is like fine ice dust, and the white 

 waves glide across the grass with a stealthy, crawl- 

 ing motion which has in it something sinister and 

 cruel. Accordingly, as the bright fall weather passes, 

 and the dreary winter draws nigh, when the days 

 shorten, and the nights seem interminable, and gray 

 storms lower above the gray horizon, the antelope 

 gather in bands and seek sheltered places, where 

 they may abide through the winter-time of famine 

 and cold and deep snow. Some of these bands travel 

 for many hundred miles, going and returning over 

 the same routes, swimming rivers, crossing prairies, 

 and threading their way through steep defiles. Such 

 bands make their winter home in places like the 

 Black Hills, or similar mountainous regions, where 

 the shelter and feed are good, and where in conse- 

 quence antelope have wintered in countless thou- 

 sands for untold generations. Other bands do not 



