THE ANTELOPE. 



103 



three animals thus encountering each other in a desert, when 

 all their horns becoming entangled, they remained fixed, unable 

 to separate, till they sank together on the ground, their skulls 

 and skeletons afterwards being discovered, thus giving evidence 

 of the combat and its fatal result. 



THE ANTELOPE. 



No animal of the American wilds surpasses the antelope 

 in beauty. The little creatures congregate in herds of many 



THE ANTELOPE. 



thousands, though, from the exterminating war waged against 

 them by the Indians, they have greatly decreased in numbers. 

 The size of the antelope is about that of the common red- 

 deer doe ; the colour somewhat between buff and fawn, shaded 

 here and there into reddish-brown, and a patch of pure white 

 on the hind-quarters. This gives rise to the expression of the 

 hunter, when he sees it flying before him, that the creature is 

 "showing its clean linen." The ears are placed far back on 

 the head, are very long, and curved so much that at a distance 



