The American Wilderness. 17 



a yearling's track is not unlike that made by a big prong* 

 buck when striding rapidly with the toes well apart. 

 White-goat tracks are also square, and as large as those 

 of the sheep ; but there is less indentation of the hoof 

 points, which come nearer together. 



The antelope, or prong-buck, was once found in 

 abundance from the eastern edge of the great plains to 

 the Pacific, but it has everywhere diminished in numbers, 

 and has been exterminated along the eastern and western 

 borders of its former range. The bighorn, or mountain 

 sheep, is found in the Rocky Mountains from northern 

 Mexico to Alaska ; and in the United States from the 

 Coast and Cascade ranges to the Bad Lands of the 

 western edges of the Dakotas, wherever there are moun- 

 tain chains or tracts of rugged hills. It was never very 

 abundant, and, though it has become less so, it has held 

 its own better than most game. The white goat, how- 

 ever, alone among our game animals, has positively in- 

 creased in numbers since the advent of settlers ; because 

 white hunters rarely follow it, and the Indians who once 

 sought its skin for robes now use blankets instead. Its 

 true home is in Alaska and Canada, but it crosses our 

 borders along the lines of the Rockies and Cascades, and 

 a few small isolated colonies are found here and there 

 southward to California and New Mexico. 



The cougar and wolf, once common throughout the 

 United States, have now completely disappeared from all 

 save the wildest regions. The black bear holds its own 

 better ; it was never found on the great plains. The 

 huge grisly ranges from the great plains to the Pacific. 



