368 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



The females breed when a year old, the period of gesta- 

 tion being about eight months. The young are dropped 

 in June, the number at a birth being one or two, and never 

 more, so far as I could see or learn. They are able to move 

 about briskly in a few days after being born, and at the 

 end of a fortnight may be seen out grazing with their 

 dams. Their worst foes are the wolves; and to protect 

 them from these prowlers, the mothers often seek shelter 

 in places which they could not be induced to frequent at 

 other times. 



When startled suddenly, an antelope makes several leaps 

 or buck -jumps straight upward, and stares stupidly and 

 wildly about for a short time before it attempts to flee; 

 so, if a number are grouped together, that is the time for 

 the sportsman to do his best work, for he may pour in half 

 a dozen shots before the herd gets beyond range. Even 

 after being fired at, antelopes will often run only a short 

 distance before they halt, wheel about, and stare in a va- 

 cant, startled manner at the hunter, and this gives him an- 

 other opportunity for planting a few bullets in their midst 

 to good advantage. When they break away, however, 

 there is no more " ringing up," for they will not stop, in 

 all probability, until they have placed a goodly distance 

 between themselves and the object of their suspicion ; and 

 this they do in a short time, for they scarcely seem to 

 touch the ground when in full flight; so all the hunter 

 sees are numerous legs bobbing up and down as rapidly 

 as if they were worked by a ten -thousand -horse steam- 

 power. They present a graceful aspect in motion, and 

 when a large herd runs together the scene is very spirited. 

 Although the animals are very swift for a short time, and 

 have fair staying powers, yet they are by no means so fleet 

 of foot as some persons have given them credit for. I 

 have seen good horses keep up with them long enough to 

 enable hunters to empty their revolvers into a herd, and I 

 have myself kept close enough to them, when mounted on 

 a fleet American horse, to bring down a few with a rifle in 

 a run of three or four miles. They have, however, a de- 



