122 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



I had been some weeks in the country, and had 

 already secured as many antelope heads as I wished 

 to take away with me, but had not yet 4 finished ' 

 with the other kinds of game, and, indeed, as regards 

 bear and the wild sheep, or bighorn, could see no 

 prospect of doing so. 



My friend, however, had only lately arrived in the 

 country, and as it was, like mine, his first visit, he 

 wished, of course, to secure a couple of heads of the 

 common American antelope or pronghorn, which will, 

 probably, long continue to exist in abundance on the 

 plains ; but on the other hand the elk, or wapiti, will 

 have been exterminated like the buffalo, unless heavy 

 licences are made necessary, or a stop is in some way 

 put to the indiscriminate hide-hunting which still goes 

 on ; for the laws concerning hide-exportation from 

 certain territories are of no practical effect. I will 

 call my friend, as he prefers it, not by his own name, 

 but by that by which he was known among the 

 cow-boys of the round-up whom we accompanied for 

 some days, namely, the King. The King, therefore, 

 * started } out with one of ( the boys ' after pronghorn 

 antelope. 



He was unsuccessful in killing any antelope that 

 day, though he did so later on. I had determined on 

 shooting no more antelope myself, but took turns with 

 1 Boler ' (who, in addition to waggon driving, was en- 

 gaged at forty dollars a month to cook) in driving. 

 Eoad there was none, though faint tracks of the round- 

 up waggon wheel-marks were occasionally visible 



