American Big-Game Hunting 



in a few hundred yards, and sometimes hav- 

 ing to run a mile or so. In consequence, by 

 the time we reached the regular hunting- 

 ground, the dogs were apt to have lost a 

 good deal of their freshness. We would get 

 them in behind the horses and creep cau- 

 tiously along, trying to find some solitary 

 prongbuck in a suitable place, where we 

 could bring up the dogs from behind a 

 hillock, and give them a fair start after 

 it. Usually we failed to get the dogs near 

 enough for a good start ; and in most cases 

 their chases after unwounded prongbuck re- 

 sulted in the quarry running clean away 

 from them. Thus the odds were greatly 

 against them; but, on the other hand, we 

 helped them wherever possible with the rifle. 

 We often rode well scattered out, and if one 

 of us put up an antelope, or had a chance at 

 one when driven by the dogs, he would al- 

 ways fire, and the pack were saved from the 

 ill effects of total discouragement by so often 

 getting these wounded beasts. It was aston- 

 ishing to see how fast an antelope with a 

 broken leg could run. If such a beast had 

 a good start, and especially if the dogs were 



136 



