THE ANTELOPE, OR PRONO-HORN. 363 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE ANTELOPE, OR PEONG-HOEX. 



The Prong-horn. Its Haunts, Range, and Abundance. Character of its 

 Food. Its fear of Woods. Its Position in Natural History. General 

 Characteristics. Strange Growth of its Horns. Its Glandular System. 

 Is easily Tamed. Sterility when Domesticated. Its Speed. Cours- 

 ing it with Greyhounds. Vigilance of the Animal. A Herd on Guard. 

 Best Means of stalking it Great Curiosity of Males. Weeps when 

 wounded. Twenty-four killed by one Dog. A Day's Coursing on the 

 Laramie Plains. Lassoing Fawns. The best Dogs for the Chase. 

 How experienced Hounds hunt the Antelope. Stalking and its Re- 

 Bult. Playful Fawns. Stags and Wolves. Fate of the Autelope. 



THE American antelope, or prong -horn (Antilocapra 

 americana), is found all over the open plains of the West, 

 but is never seen in wooded regions, nor at any point east 

 of the Missouri River. It was formerly very abundant, 

 and thousands covered the plains as far as the eye could 

 see ; but it is fast disappearing now before the onslaughts, 

 and the precise, long-range rifles of red and white hunters. 



This very interesting animal was first made known to 

 the scientific world by Lewis and Clarke, who found it on 

 the Upper Missouri River in 1804, and met it in large num- 

 bers from that point westward as far as the Cascade Range. 

 It does not cross west of that great chain in Oregon and 

 Washington Territory, owing to the wooded character of 

 the region, but it crosses the Sierra Nevada Range, in Cal- 

 ifornia, and small herds rnay now be met with in several 

 parts of that State. It is still numerous in British America 

 and the sections south of it on the Pacific slope, and is 

 found extensively in all the Territories, as their population 

 is very small at present. 



Its favorite habitat is the open, undulating, and treeless 

 plains which have a light gravelly soil, and produce such 



