314 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



contests, which arc waged with horns and legs ; yet I never 

 saw any fatal results from them. 



The females breed when a year old, the period of gestation 

 being about eight months. The young are dropped in June, 

 the number at a birth being one or two, and never more, so far 

 as I could see or learn. They are able to move about briskly 

 in a few days after being born, and at the end of a fortnight 

 may be seen out grazing with their dams. Their worst foes 

 are the wolves, and to protect them from these prowlers the 

 mothers often seek shelter in places which they could not be 

 induced to frequent at other times. 



When startled suddenly, an antelope makes several leaps or 

 buck -jumps straight upwards, and stares stupidly and wildly 

 about for a short time before it attempts to flee ; so if a number 

 are grouped together that is the time for the sportsman to do 

 his best work, for he may pour in half a dozen shots before 

 the herd gets beyond range. Even after being fired at, ante- 

 lopes will often run only a short distance before they halt, 

 wheel about, and stare in a vacant, startled manner, at the 

 hunter, and this gives him another opportunity for planting a 

 few bullets in their midst to good advantage. AVhen they 

 break away, however, there is no more " ringing up," for they 

 will not stop, in all probability, until they have placed a goodly 

 distance between themselves and the object of their suspicion, 

 and this they do in a short time, for they scarcely seem to 

 touch the ground when in full flight; so all the hunter sees are 

 numerous legs bobbing up and down as rapidly as if they were 

 worked by a ten-thousand-horse steam power. They present 

 a graceful aspect in motion, and when a large herd runs tog-ether 

 the scene is very spirited. Although the animals are very 

 swift for a short time, and have fair staying powers, yet they 

 are by no means so fleet of foot as some persons have given 

 them credit for. I have seen good horses keep up with them 

 long enough to enable hunters to empty their revolvers into a 

 herd, and I have myself kept close enough to them, when 

 mounted on a fleet American horse, to bring down a few with 

 a rifle in a run of three or Four miles. They have, however, 

 a decided advantage over a horse in a rolling country, as their 



