178 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



between the twisted low-lying limbs of a sage- 

 brush. Not until I laid hold of the kid to drag 

 it out did it make a move. Then it struggled 

 and gave a low bleat. 



Realizing that this might bring the mother 

 like lightning I let go and rose up. There she 

 was, coming like the wind, and only four or five 

 hundred feet away, indifferent to the fact that 

 man is the most dangerous of enemies. Just 

 how close she might have come, just what might 

 have happened had I not straightened up at that 

 moment, is sheer guesswork. But the freed 

 youngster butted me violently behind and then 

 ran off to meet his mother. 



During most of the year the great silent 

 plains are at rest in tawny and gray brown. The 

 dreamy, sunny distances show only moving cloud 

 shadows. A brief barrage of dust storm some- 

 times sweeps across or a wild drive of tumble- 

 weeds with a front from horizon to horizon 

 goes bounding and rolling toward the rim, where 

 they go over and vanish. But these endless 

 distances are palpitating with flowers and song 

 when the young antelope are born. 



One May morning a flock of blackbirds 

 alighted upon a leafy cottonwood tree a lone 

 tuft in an empire of treeless distances. They 

 sang all at once a whirlwind of song. Two 

 antelope herds were on separate skylines. 



