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CHAPTEE XHI. 



ANTELOPE. 



(Antelope furcifer.) 



THIS is peculiarly a plains animal, loving the high, 

 dry prairie, and being frequently found so far from 

 water as to raise a doubt in the minds of many plains- 

 men whether he may not be able to live without 

 drinking. Absurd as this is, the hypothesis has more 

 of plausibility than would at first appear. There is 

 scarcely a desert so barren and arid that the antelope 

 cannot find means of existence, and apparently a very 

 comfortable existence, as, wherever found, he is invariably 

 at the proper season in splendid condition. 



He, however, drinks with as much regularity as the 

 deer ; and however parched and dry the desert may be 

 to man, if antelope are found on it, their keen noses have 

 shown them where to find a spring, or pool of rain 

 water in the cavity of a rock, and to which they resort 

 at least once a day to slake their thirst. 



Should a man suffering from want of water on a 

 desert, where none is known to exist, come on a herd of 

 antelope, and exercise due care in watching their move- 

 ments without alarming them, his patience will within 

 twenty-four hours meet its reward in the discovery of 

 their hidden store of the precious fluid. 



The antelope is the smallest of the larger game 

 animals of the plains, averaging, when dressed, scarcely 

 fifty pounds. The head of the male is armed with 



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