CHAPTER XXIII. 



ANTELOPE HUNTING IN MONTANA. 



all the numerous species of large game to be 

 found in the far West, there is none whose 

 pursuit furnishes grander sport to the expert 

 .rifleman than the antelope (Antilocapra 

 americana). His habitat being the high, 

 open plains, he may be hunted on horse- 

 back, and with a much greater degree of 

 comfort than may the deer, elk, bear, and 

 other species which inhabit the wooded or 

 mountainous districts. His keen eyesight, 

 his fine sense of smell, his intense fear of his 

 natural enemy, man, however, render him the most 

 difficult of all game animals to approach, and 

 he must indeed be a skillful hunter who can get 

 within easy rifle range of the antelope, unless he 

 happens to have the circumstances of wind and lie of 

 ground peculiarly in his fa.vor. When the game is 

 first sighted, even though it be one, two, or three 

 miles away, you must either dismount and picket 

 your horse, or find cover in some coulee or draw, 

 where you can ride entirely out of sight of the quarry. 

 But even under such favorable circumstances it is 

 not well to attempt to ride very near them. Their 

 sense of hearing is also very acute, and should your 

 horse' s hoof or shoe strike a loose rock, or should he 



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