394 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
the exhibition of strange objects which arouse their curiosity) 
to be practised with success. Ten or fifteen years ago, antelope 
might be seen from the windows of almost every train running 
west of Chicago, but now their range is vastly curtailed, and 
though a few small herds may still be found in most of their 
old haunts, they are not really abundant except in Texas, 
in the neighbourhood of the National Park, and in Assine- 
boia, where in 1893 I saw two considerable bands in April 
from the carriage windows of the Canadian Pacific Railway 
train. 
In Texas, a friend who was there in November 1892 
wrote me: ‘There seems to be plenty of antelope round 
here, as they are frequently brought into town, sometimes by 
the cartload to be shipped.’ In California antelopes have been 
almost exterminated, and the same may be said of Oregon, 
whilst in Colorado the districts in which they occur are not 
numerous, nor even in these does the beast exist in any numbers, 
except where it has been preserved. It seems likely that the 
pronghorn will be the next of the American mammals to dis- 
appear before the arms of the white man. Like the buffalo, 
the antelope is a dweller on the plains, seldom seeking refuge 
either in the timber or in the high mountains, although he is 
found at a very considerable altitude on the high tablelands 
near Gunnison, Colorado, for example (6,000 to 7,000 ft. at 
least above sea level). The season for antelope shooting should _ 
be from August to the middle or end of October, after which 
time the oldest of the bucks will have shed the shell-like 
covering of their horns. The rutting season lasts for about six 
weeks, beginning in September and ending in October. The 
pronghorn, though an inhabitant of the great plains, is not a 
wanderer as most denizens of such countries are, but seems to 
attach himself to a certain district, and to remain there or near 
there until his tribe has been exterminated. Forinstance, there — 
is a small band which may be seen almost any day in winter — 
within a few miles of one of the big cities of Colorado. The — 
band grows smaller year by year, but it never alters its winter — 
