CAMPING ON THE PLAINS 95 



ing him the other coyote slipped up close and 

 made a dash after one farthest from the hole, but 

 the fat dog won by half a length. 



While the coyotes were together on a ridge 

 another coyote passed near. They watched him, 

 but he went by pretending not to see them. 

 They hunted on. One turned to right of a sand 

 hill and the other to the left. I watched the 

 one on the right slip up and peep over into a 

 ravine. He then descended slowly as though 

 waiting for the other coyote to start something. 

 It started a jack rabbit. This was overhauled 

 before it could get out of the rough ravine. 



Here, as in the mountains and forests, I 

 constantly tried to get close to animals. I would 

 crawl to the top of a hill or ridge and peep over 

 before showing myself. I would peep out on 

 the plains before climbing out of a ravine. 

 Often this manner of stalking brought me close to 

 a coyote or an antelope, and frequently I lay 

 for a long time watching them without frighten- 

 ing them by showing myself. 



As the afternoon was well along and as I had 

 travelled twenty miles or farther in a roundabout 

 way, the thing now was to go directly to camp. 

 I felt it could not be more than five miles away, 

 across the confusion of sand hills. To be certain 

 of my reckoning I sat down by a smooth patch 

 of sand and marked the crooked line in it which 



