368 SFORTINO 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- 



