196 
PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE. 
examine the novel object which astonishes as well as alarms them, the 
antelopes on seeing a hunter, advance towai’d him, stopping at intervals, and 
then again advancing, and should the hunter partly conceal himself, and 
wave his handkerchief or a white or red rag on the end of his ramrod, he 
may draw the wondering animals quite close to him and then quickly seiz- 
ing his rifle send a ball through the fattest of the group, ere the timid crea- 
tures have time to fly from the fatal spot. 
The Indians, we were told, sometimes bring the antelope to within ar- 
row-shot (bow-shot), by throwing themselves on their backs and kicking 
up their heels with a bit of a rag fastened to them, on seeing which mov- 
ing amid the grass the antelope draws near to satisfy his curiosity. 
The atmosphere on the western prairies is so pure and clear that an an- 
telope is easily seen when fully one mile off) and you can tell whether it 
is feeding quietly or is alarmed ; but beautiful as the transparent thin air 
shews all distant objects, we have never found the great western prairies 
equal the Jloivery descriptions of travellers. They lack the pure streamlet 
wherein the hunter may assuage his thirst — the delicious copses of dark, 
leafy trees ; and even the thousands of fragrant flowers, which they are poet- 
ically described as possessing, are generally of the smaller varieties ; and the 
Indian who roams over them is far from the ideal being — all grace, strength 
and noblene.ss, in his savage freedom — that we from these descriptions con- 
ceive him. Reader, do not expect to find any of the vast prairies that 
border the Upper Missouri, or the Yellow-Stone rivers, and extend to the 
Salt Lakes amid the Californian range of the Rocky Mountains, verdant 
pastures ready for flocks and herds, and full of the soft perfume of the 
violet. No ; you will find an immense waste of stony, gravelly, barren soil, 
stretched before you ; you will be tormented with thirst, half eaten up by 
stinging flies, and lucky will you be if at night you find wood and water 
enough to supply your fire and make your cup of coffee ; and should you 
meet a band of Indians, you will find them wrapped in old buffalo robes, 
their bodies filthy and covered with vermin, and by stealing or begging 
they will obtain from you perhaps more than you can spare from your 
scanty store of necessaries, and armed with bows and arrows or firearms, 
they are not unfrequently ready to murder, or at least rob you of all your 
personal property, including your ammunition, gun and butcher knife ! 
The Prong-horned Antelope brings forth its young about the same time 
as the common deer : from early in May to the middle of June ; it has gen- 
erally two fawns at a birth. We have heard of no case in which more 
than that number has been dropped at a time, and probably in some cases 
only one is fawned by the dam. The young are not spotted like the fawn 
of the common deer, but are of a uniform dun colour. The dam 
