52 POPULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 
species to become extinct, and if we may judge by the 
rate at which the bands have been disappearing during the 
last fifteen years, ten years more will, in all probability, wit- 
ness the extermination of the last individuals now struggling 
to exist outside of rigidly protected areas. It was the inten- 
tion of the Society to make liberal provision for the study of 
the species while it is yet possible to obtain living specimens, 
for fifty years hence our graceful and zoologically interest- 
ing Prong-Horn will be as extinct as the dodo. Unfortu- 
nately, however, it fares so badly on the Atlantic coast, 
there will, no doubt, be periods wherein this species will be 
temporarily absent from the Park. 
Forty years ago this animal inhabited practically the 
whole of the great pasture region which stretches eastward 
from the Rocky Mountains to the western borders of Iowa 
and Missouri. Northward its range extended far into Mani- 
toba; southward it went far beyond the Rio Grande, and it 
also ranged southwestward through Colorado and Nevada 
to southern California. Its chosen home was the treeless 
plains, where the rich buffalo grass and bunch grass 
afforded abundant food, but it also frequented the beau- 
tiful mountain parks of Wyoming and Colorado. It even 
lived contentedly in the deserts of the southwest, where its 
voluntary presence, coupled with the absence of water, con- 
stituted a problem which has puzzled the brain of many 
a desert traveller. 
Although the Prong-Horn is keen-sighted, wary, and at all 
times an exceptionally timid and nervous animal, it is no 
match for man and long-range rifles. Its skin is of no value 
but its flesh is delicious at all times, even in midsummer, 
when most other wild meat is out of flavor. The general 
settlement of the great pasture region sealed the doom of 
all the large game animals which once stocked it abundant- 
ly. Whenever a cowboy wanted an extra choice roast, or 
range-riding became too monotonous for him to endure, he 
killed an antelope. Whenever an eastern tenderfoot wanted 
to ‘‘shoot something,’’ he was taken out on the range and 
turned loose, to hunt antelope. The difficulty involved was 
only barely sufficient to insure a proper degree of interest 
and excitement. Almost any man with a modern rifle can 
kill an antelope. 
To-day, all observers agree that in all regions wherein the 
antelope are not rigidly protected, they are going fast. 
Those in the Yellowstone Park are protected against man 
