l02 Antelope Hunting Thirty Years Ago and To-Day 



they know not what — and after more or 

 less running backward and forward and 

 circling about are likely to come within 

 range. 



Everyone who has hunted antelope at 

 all knows very well that after one of these 

 animals has been startled and has run 

 to the top of the hill to watch, it is useless 

 to attempt to approach it. As soon as 

 the hunter disappears from his sight, the 

 antelope runs to another hill, and watches 

 from there. On the other hand, I have 

 several times killed antelope which were 

 watching the wagon in which I was driv- 

 ing, by jumping from the wagon on the 

 opposite side, lying flat for a time, and 

 while the animal's attention was directed 

 to the wagon I have been able to get under 

 cover and within .shot. In the same way 

 I have occasionally, when riding with an- 

 other man, dropped from my horse and 

 let my companion go on with both horses, 

 he holding the animal's attention until I 

 had got under cover. 



The hunter of course finds that no two 

 sets of conditions which he has to meet 

 are quite alike, and a good hunter will 

 adapt himself readily to the necessities of 

 any given case. 



The antelope's tenacity of life, and his 

 ability to escape pursuit, even when des- 

 perately wounded, is well known, and so 

 many grewsome tales exemplifying this 

 have been told that I will not add to the 

 number. 



Perhaps more remarkable shots have 

 been made at antelope than at any other 

 American game. This is natural, of 

 course, since, being usually in plain sight, 

 they were often shot at from great dis- 

 tances; and many a man, making a lucky 

 guess at distance, and holding just right, 

 has been enormously proud of a very long 

 shot that killed. Of such long shots few 

 were successful; but those that were so, 

 often made for the rifleman who fired 

 them a great — but wholly undeserved — 

 reputation. I myself made the most ex- 

 traordinary shot at an antelope that I 

 ever heard of, which, however, has noth- 

 ing to do with good shooting, but rather 

 with the erratic course that a rifle ball 

 may take. With several scouts, white 

 men and Indians, I rode over a hill, to 

 see three or four buck antelope spring to 

 their feet, run a short distance, and then 

 stop to look. I made a quick shot at one, 



which dropped, and on going to him I 

 found him not dead though desperately 

 wounded. The animal had been stand- 

 ing, broad side on, his face toward my 

 left. The ball had struck the left elbow, 

 spHntering the olecranon, passed through 

 the brisket, broken the right humerus, 

 turned at right angles, and gone back, 

 cutting several ribs, broken the right 

 femur, then turned again at right angles 

 and came out through the inside of the 

 leg, and struck the left hock joint, which 

 it dislocated and twisted off, so that it 

 hung by a very narrow string of hide. I 

 never again expect to see so extraordinary 

 a course for a rifle ball. 



Antelope coursing, once a favorite .sport 

 in the West, especially at army posts, has, 

 of course, passed out of existence with the 

 passing' of the game that was pursued. 

 The antelope was the swiftest animal cf 

 the plains, yet among the antelope there is 

 as much difference in speed and endurance 

 as exists among horses. Some are swift 

 and some slow; some long winded and 

 some easily tired ; so that, while some ante- 

 lope could be readily overtaken by grey- 

 hounds or even horses, others were never 

 approached. Perhaps the best record 

 made by a greyhound was that of Cieneral 

 Stanley's dog Gibbon which during the 

 Yellowstone expedition of 1873 caught un- 

 aided twenty-one antelope. 



The antelope is rapidly decreasing in 

 numbers and is distinctly in danger of 

 extermination. This danger is being rec- 

 ognized, and the statutes of .several States 

 forbid the killing of antelo])e. 



In my time antelope were very abundant 

 in the western Indian Territor)', in Kansas, 

 Nebraska, all of what was then Dakota, 

 and to the westward. In the last three 

 States, hundreds — often many hundreds — 

 were seen in a day's march. Now they are 

 practically exterminated from those States, 

 except a very few in the dry country on 

 the extreme western borders of each ; but 

 these survivors are to be numbered by 

 hundreds — not more. In Montana, Wyo- 

 ming, Colorado, and New Mexico there 

 are still a few antelope, confined chiefly 

 to the high dry portions devoted to range 

 cattle. Similarly in Oregon, Nevada, 

 Utah, and Arizona there are antelope, 

 and no doubt a few in southern California; 

 while in Texas, Mexico and lower Cali- 

 fornia they are more numerous. 



