The Heart of the Desert 175 



other towns now stand, or in the country west of the 

 delta along New River. If one wishes antelope hunt- 

 ing he must go to Arizona, Sonora, Chihuahua, Mon- 

 tana, or Wyoming ; or, nearer, take the steamer for 

 Ensenada and hunt for the only American antelope in 

 Lower California, in whose ranges the mountain sheep 

 is also found. 



Within fifteen years there has been excellent ante- 

 lope hunting in the Mojave and Antelope valleys, which 

 shows how suddenly this game has been driven out by 

 the march of enterprise. On the Mojave desert I met 

 an old California!! who told me that he had had the sport 

 of his life before he got so "long in the tooth." His 

 method was to follow the antelope on horseback ; either 

 run it down, or shoot it from the saddle at full speed 

 a dangerous and sportsmanlike method in strong con- 

 trast to the fashion of some hunters who entice the little 

 creature up to them by "ways that are dark" and shoot 

 it down, a victim to curiosity. 



The pronghorn is one of the most interesting of all 

 American animals, and should be shot only with a 

 camera. It is the only hollow-horned animal that sheds 

 its horn sheaths a feature that was long denied or 

 doubted, and believed impossible. In the early days it 

 roamed over the great plains and was essentially an ani- 

 mal of the open. Its hair is rough and stiff, its horns 

 graceful, with a single prong half-way up, and near their 

 base the large and prominent eyes which enable them 

 to see an enemy for a long distance behind. In the 



