SKINNER — THE PRONG-HORN 
103 
longer, although at times an individual reaches the ripe old age of 
twelve or fifteen years. 
Dr. R. W. Shufeldt tells of an unusual animal seen six miles north 
of old Fort Fetterman, in Wyoming. Of a band of nine antelope in a 
shallow valley 
the largest buck, a full-grown and splendid specimen, had jet black head and 
shoulders, while the coloration of the rest of his body was normal. A case of 
melanism of an antelope — ^where the condition was confined to the head and 
shoulders — must certainly be one of the rarest occurrences in nature. 
Although the great abundance of the antelope in the old days made 
sure an ample supply of meat for the use of the hunters, red and white, 
the quality of this meat, which is described by one authority as ‘‘deli- 
cious” and by another as “highly relished by everyone who has ever 
partaken of it,” only served later to hasten the destruction of the 
animal. The secretion from the glands, although strong and musky, 
does not affect the flesh in any way. Until late in the 70’s the Indians 
on the plains depended to no little extent on the antelope for meat, 
especially when deer, elk, and prairie-dogs could not be obtained. 
Dr. E. W. Nelson says: 
In 1884 antelope still existed in large numbers at many points in the Rocky 
Mountains from near the Mexican to the Canadian border. We killed antelope, 
deer, or elk for ranch use throughout the year without a thought that the supply 
was not perpetual. 
And Col. Theodore Roosevelt has written, “On my ranch it has 
always been the animal which yielded us most of the fresh meat in the 
spring and summer.” 
I have already related how hunters, Indians as well as white men, 
made use of the antelope^s great curiosity to lure them to destruction 
by waving a red shirt, a bit of colored cloth, or other unusual but 
plainly seen object. But the Indians had other methods of hunting. 
It is known that they sometimes surrounded a herd, driving it into the 
water where the game could be easily slaughtered with arrows. Some 
of the tribes who had plenty of horses in suitable country, sometimes 
ran antelopes down by using relays of riders previously posted about a 
small band. It must be admitted though, that this method was very 
unproductive of results, often requiring a day’s hard work on the 
part of twenty Indians and horses to secure one or two hundred pounds 
of meat. 
