92 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



meat at the ranch, and were out to make a 

 good killing. 



Besides their brute and human foes, the 

 prong-horn must also fear the elements, and 

 especially the snows of winter. On the north- 

 ern plains the cold weather is of polar severity, 

 and turns the green, grassy prairies of mid- 

 summer into ironbound wastes. The blizzards 

 whirl and sweep across them with a shrieking 

 fury which few living things may face. The 

 snow is like fine ice dust, and the white waves 

 glide across the grass with a stealthy, crawling 

 motion which has in it something sinister and 

 cruel. Accordingly, as the bright fall weather 

 passes, and the dreary winter draws nigh, 

 when the days shorten, and the nights seem 

 interminable, and gray storms lower above 

 the gray horizon, the antelope gather in bands 

 and seek sheltered places, where they may 

 abide through the winter-time of famine and 

 cold and deep snow. Some of these bands 

 travel for many hundred miles, going and 

 returning over the same routes, swimming 

 rivers, crossing prairies, and threading their 

 way through steep defiles. Such bands make 

 their winter home in places like the Black 

 Hills, or similar mountainous regions, where 

 the shelter and feed are good, and where in 

 consequence antelope have wintered in count- 

 less thousands for untold generations. Other 

 bands do not travel for any very great dis- 

 tance, but seek some sheltered grassy table- 

 land in the Bad Lands, or some well-shielded 

 valley, where their instinct and experience 

 teach them that the snow does not He deep in 

 winter. Once having chosen such a place 



