38 POPULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 



ness the extermination of the last individuals now struggling 

 to exist outside of rigidly protected areas. It was the inten- 

 tion of the Society to make liberal provision for the study of 

 the species while it is yet possible to obtain living specimens, 

 for fifty years hence our graceful and zoologically interest- 

 ing prong-horn will be as extinct as the dodo. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, it fares so badly on the Atlantic coast, 

 there will, no doubt, be periods wherein this species will be 

 temporarily absent from the Park. 



Forty years ago this animal inhabited practically the 

 whole of the great pasture region which stretches eastward 

 from the Rocky Mountains to the western borders of Iowa 

 and Missouri. Northward its range extended far into Mani- 

 toba ; southward it went far beyond the Rio Grande, and it 

 also ranged south west ward through Colorado and Nevada 

 to southern California. Its chosen home was the treeless 

 plains, where the rich buffalo grass and bunch grass 

 afforded abundant food, but it also frequented the beau- 

 tiful mountain parks of Wyoming and Colorado. It even 

 lived contentedly in the deserts of the southwest, where its 

 voluntary presence, coupled with the absence of water, con- 

 stituted a conundrum which has puzzled the brain of many 

 a desert traveller. 



Although the Prong-Horn is keen-sighted, wary, and at all 

 times an exceptionally timid and nervous animal, it is no 

 match for man and long-range rifles. It:; skin is of no value 

 but its flesh is delicious at all times, even in midsummer, 

 when most other wild meat is out of flavor. The general 

 settlement of the great pasture region sealed the doom of 

 all the large game animals which once stocked it abundant- 

 ly. Whenever a cowboy wanted an extra choice roast, or 

 range-riding became too monotonous for him to endure, he 

 killed an antelope. Whenever an eastern tenderfoot wanted 

 to "shoot something," he was taken out on the range and 

 turned loose, to hunt antelope. The difficulty involved was 

 only barely sufficient to insure a proper degree of interest 

 and excitement. Almost any man with a modern rifle can 

 kill an antelope. 



To-day, all observers agree that in all regions wherein the 

 antelope are not rigidly protected, they are going fast. 

 Those in the Yellowstone Park are protected against man 

 only to be devoured by the wolves which infest the Park. 

 Coyotes have been seen to run down and kill antelope within 

 sight of the town of Gardiner. So far as can be ascertained, 



