58 THE ANTELOPE OF AMERICA. 



ably tenacious of life, or if this does not express the exact truth, 

 he can sustain himself for a length of time with such severe 

 wounds as would prostrate almost any other animal. With a 

 broken leg he will flee almost as rapidly as if uninjured, and 

 the hunters insist he will maintain the chase nearly as far. They 

 insist he will carry off more lead than any other animal of his 

 size. I was once on a hunt in the Sierra Madre Mountain, near 

 the Laramie Plains, when it was a standing joke in camp, that 

 one of the party, a distinguished judicial officer of Wyoming, 

 who Avas an excellent sportsman as well as a good judge, had 

 shot fourteen balls into a buclc antelope, and only so crippled 

 him, that by throwing away his gun in despair of killing his 

 game in that way, he was enabled to overtake him on foot and 

 knock him on the head with his hatchet. While undoubtedly 

 the antelope must fall to the shot if hit in a vital part, he can 

 carry severe wounds, and frequently escapes unless these reach 

 some part upon which life or locomotion immediatelj^ depend. 



All of these characteristics should be constantly borne in mind 

 by the sportsman or the hunter if he would pursue the American 

 antelope with success. 



Our antelope was an essential article of food among the ab- 

 origines inhabiting the country which it frequented before the 

 introduction of fire-arms among them. Thej^ had various modes 

 of capturing it, chief among which was with the bow and arrow. 

 This mode involved the necessity of their getting a very close 

 range. This could only be done by some kind of artifice, or by 

 the most skillful and cautious stalking, always remembering its 

 defective eyesight, its acute senses of hearing and smelling, as 

 well as its inordinate curiosity. The latter infirmity — for such 

 it often proves to the animal — was taken advantage of by the 

 savage, who, approaching the game as nearly as he safely could 

 from behind the sage bushes or other concealing object, exhibit- 

 ing in irregular motion a piece of the tanned skin of the animal 

 colored red or white, or some other attractive object, would at- 

 tract the game. When the attention of the antelope is attracted 

 by such an object alternately appearing and disappearing, its curi- 

 osity becomes excited, and an interesting struggle commences 

 between that and its timidity, and it will approach cautiously, 

 then retreat a little, then prance around, drawing towards the 

 object gradually till it is finally brought within bow-shot. Then 

 it was that the Iiidian would let fly his arrow from his conceal- 

 ment, or spring to his feet, the arrow to the string, and the 



