HUNTING IN CATTLE COUNTRY 153 



pursuit at odd moments, with whatever long-legged dogs 

 he and his neighbors happen to have; and his methods of 

 coursing are apt to be as rough as his outfit. My own 

 coursing was precisely of this character. At different 

 times I had on my ranch one or two high-classed grey- 

 hounds and Scotch deerhounds, with which we coursed 

 deer and antelope, as well as jack-rabbits, foxes, and 

 coyotes; and we usually had with them one or two or- 

 dinary hounds, and various half-bred dogs. I must add, 

 however, that some of the latter were very good. I can 

 recall in particular one fawn-colored beast, a cross be- 

 tween a greyhound and a foxhound, which ran nearly 

 as fast as the former, though it occasionally yelped in 

 shrill tones. It could also trail well, and was thoroughly 

 game; on one occasion it ran down and killed a coyote 

 single-handed. 



On going out with these dogs, I rarely chose a day 

 when I was actually in need of fresh meat. If this was 

 the case, I usually went alone with the rifle; but if one 

 or two other men were at the ranch, and we wanted a 

 morning's fun, we would often summon the dogs, mount 

 our horses, and go trooping out to the antelope-ground. 

 As there was good deer-country between the ranch bot- 

 tom and the plains where we found the prongbuck, it not 

 infrequently happened that we had a chase after black- 

 tail or whitetail on the way. Moreover, when we got out 

 to the ground, before sighting antelope, it frequently hap- 

 pened that the dogs would jump a jack-rabbit or a fox, 

 and away the whole set would go after it, streaking 

 through the short grass, sometimes catching their prey 



