WIDE AWAKE. 131 
The prong-horned antelope is the only species of the 
genus, and 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. 
