PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE. 
203 
And now we saw Van Horn, a quarter of a mile off, running to where the 
last leap was made by his prey, and then came on the sluggish air, the 
crack of his rifle, almost after we had forgotten to listen for it, as a rifle 
cracks nowhere except on prairies, where neither woods, rocks or hills send 
back the sound. When I saw this beautiful creature, a most magnificent 
male, the first I had ever seen in the flesh, though the drawing for the 
‘ Quadrupeds’ had been long made and published, how I wished to redraw 
it ! delicate even to the descriptions of the gazelle, muscular and sinewy 
as the best bred grey hound that Scotland ever produced. 
I anticipated a treat, as Van Horn gave me a hind quarter for our men, 
which I tied doubly secure to my saddle. But when night came, after ten 
hours’ ride, although we enjoyed our steaks, the deer of the Cordilleras was 
too fresh in our memories to permit us to say that this Antelope was the 
best meat we had eaten.” 
*■ * # “ q'jjg eastern spurs of the coast range were just behind us ; the 
black-tailed deer was scarcely past, for a few miles back, high up on one 
of the conical velvety hills of this range, we had seen three, looking at us 
from under one of the dwarf oaks that grow at a certain altitude, in forms 
peculiar to this country; above or below, either a different formation 
or total absence of shrubbery occurring. We were winding along the 
base of a moderate line of hills of the Sierra Nevada, when what we 
took for a flock of sheep, the trail of which we had been following for three 
days on the way to the mines from Los Angeles, was discovered, and we 
hoped for mutton, to say nothing of the company we anticipated ; but our 
flock of sheep was like the ‘ Phantom Bark,’ for it ‘ seemed never the 
nigher,’ aii contraire, turning a hill went out of sight, and we never got 
another view ; we saw another flock some miles on, and at first, suppos- 
ing it the same, wondered how they could travel so fast. This was 
probably another portion of the one we had trailed for so many days. 
We were gratified by the whole flock running near us, from which we 
argued we were in the chosen country of the Antelope, the broad Tule 
valley. The flock ran ‘ shearing’ about, as the foi’mation of the land com- 
pelled them to turn to the light or left, showing their sides alternately in 
light and shade. When they are on the mountain sides and discover a 
foe, or any object that frightens them, the whole flock rush headlong for 
the plains, whether the enemy is likely to intercept them or not, and they 
seem to fly with the single idea, that they are in a dangerous place, and 
must change it for some other, no matter Avhat ; at times a whole flock 
would run to within shot of our company, determined as it were to go 
through the line, and I believe in one or two instances would have done 
so, if they had not been shot at by our too impatient party. When op 
