204 



Antelope Hunting Thirty Years Ago and To-Day 



hunting shall be permitted, the antelope, 

 and indeed all the other species of Amer- 

 ican large game whose fate is now trem- 

 bling in the balance, may be preserved 

 for all time. Surely the antelope, the only 

 existing species of its extraordinary fam- 

 ily, ought to be worth protecting. It has 

 no near relatives, but stands alone among 

 mammals. It is the one hollow-horned 

 ruminant which sheds its hornsheaths, 

 and if it shall becone extinct the world 

 will have lost not only a species, but a 

 genus and a faTiily, which nature has 

 taken some millions of years to develop. 



Except man, the only enemy that it need 

 dread is the donesfc sheep, which is now 

 devastating the West, driving out the 

 game, ruining the old horse and cattle 

 ranges, exterminating the plants native 

 to the country over which it passes, and 

 leaving in its path a sandy or dusty waste, 

 from which the wind picks up the soil 

 powdered by the multitude of hoofs, car- 

 rying it away, and "leaving only the rock 

 and gravel behind. Over much of the 

 western country the domestic sheep has 

 driven the antelope from regions where it 

 formerly abounded, and as the sheep press 



northward and eastward, the range of the 

 antelope will necessarily become more and 

 more contracted. It is to be hoped that 

 the forest reservations which have been 

 set aside will be protected by govern- 

 mental order from the ravages of the 

 sheep, and that within their limits the an- 

 telope may still have a chance to feed. 

 And when, if ever, game refuges such as 

 have been spoken of shall be set aside, 

 each one should hold an ample territory 

 suited to the life of the antelope. 



No species of American game is likely 

 to respond more easily to protection than 

 the antelope. If it can be freed from 

 persecution by man it will speedily re- 

 estabhsh itself. Its natural enemies are 

 few, and if it has to contend only with 

 them in its struggle for existence, it will 

 survive and do well. It is most at home 

 in many wide stretches of arid land where 

 the farmers' fences can never interfere 

 with it. It can live and thrive among 

 the herds of cattle that feed upon these 

 high plains, and the amount of grass 

 that it consumes will never be large 

 enough for it to be a menace to the stock- 

 man. 



Female Fawn, July. 



