WIDE AWAKE. 131 



The prong -horned antelope is the only species of the 

 genus, aud is about the size of Cervus Virginianus, both 

 graceful and elegant in form and action. Well may the 

 Americans be proud of possessing the only representative 

 of the race ; for when the antelope is seen on the boundless 

 prairies of the Far West, untrammeled by limit, free to go 

 and return as they choose, the impressions caused will nev- 

 er be effaced, nor a better representation of perfect inde- 

 pendence and freedom beheld. 



In referring to my diary, I find the following narrative 

 of a day's shooting : 



" Cap, are you asleep ?" Such was the welcome sound 

 that informed me that some one else was awake besides 

 myself. Such a night I do not think I had ever previous- 

 ly passed, and trust shall never have to again. To ask a 

 man nurtured in a Christian land whether he was asleep ! 

 the thing is perfectly preposterous : a gale of wind blow- 

 ing the entire night, with drops of rain as large and so nu- 

 merous that a brick wall would scarcely have repelled them, 

 let alone a flimsy break-wind composed of green boughs, 

 yet these Western companions of mine slept. Half a doz- 

 en times I determined to rout them out, and as often gave 

 up the idea: for one was quarrelsome whenever his rest 

 was disturbed ; the other had a disagreeable way of telling 

 the most doleful stories, and keeping the listeners in a con- 

 stant state of excitement, for in every shadow, every move- 

 ment of the horses, every unusual sound, he professed to 

 see an indication that a whole tribe of Indians, fully decked 

 with war-paint, and thirsting for scalps, were about to make 

 an onslaught on our defenseless bivouac. . Further, I must 

 inform my readers that Cap is an abbreviation of captain, 

 used over the Western portion of the United States for every 

 man who has borne arms, whether in the militia or regulars ; 

 whether he has been a full private or only a camp-follower. 



