March i6, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
415 
A First Experience with Antelope. 
We had never hunted antelope, nor had any 
of our immediate friends, unless they sought 
them unsuccessfully, for among the many 
animal heads which decorate their several 
libraries, this species of game is not represented. 
We did not know just what was expected of 
11s when hunting these quadrupeds, because we 
did not know just what to expect of them, and 
so after successfully stalking elk, we passed 
south through the Hoback Canon, happy in our 
freedom and exhilarated by the anticipation of 
I new hunting experiences. George, the head 
guide, said he would rather hunt antelope than 
any other kind of big game, because, first, their 
habitat is not. a constant tax upon one’s vitality, 
I as is the elk country; second, they feed at all 
hours of the day and may be hunted uninter¬ 
ruptedly, and third, the hunter gets more shoot¬ 
ing. This last reason, we concluded, implied 
that more shooting is necessary in the case of 
antelope. When we recalled to mind the remark 
of Tom, the cook, “I have learned that an ante- 
; lope can get away with an astonishing amount 
of lead,” and remembered President Roosevelt’s 
calculation that for each antelope he had killed 
nine cartridges *were expended, we guessed that 
these small, swift wary animals would be very 
hard to hit and we did not feel at all confident 
of a creditable performance “behind the gun.” 
We made a forced march with the pack train 
along the serpentine trail of the very beautiful 
canon with its many ups and downs and fre¬ 
quent fordings of the river, and advanced half 
| way across the Hoback Basin beyond—thirty-five 
miles from our starting place—before the 
shadows of the lofty mountains, which com¬ 
pletely encompassed us, gave timely warning to 
pitch our tents. With the first rays of the next 
morning’s sun, aided by the field glasses, we 
spied a herd of about fifteen grazing antelope 
upon a rise of the ground a mile away. Mr. 
Hornaday would seem to be very nearly correct 
in suggesting that nature made an error in plac¬ 
ing the large white disk upon the rump of the 
antelope, for when the sun shone upon these 
they were emphasized in the landscape as prob¬ 
ably no other wild animal would have been. 
Our destination was over the “rim” of the 
basin, a half day’s journey from our night’s 
resting place; but we decided to begin our 
schooling with this first opportunity. Accord¬ 
ingly, George and I rode in a wide circuit be¬ 
hind sheltering inequalities of the land until we 
faced the wind, then we dropped the reins over 
the horses’ heads and, on hands and knees as 
near as possible, approached without exposing 
i ourselves to the searching gaze of their wide 
awake sentinel. 
They were still half a mile away and were 
changing their course so frequently and so 
quickly as to baffle any attempt to head them off 
and an opportunity for a shot seemed exceed¬ 
ingly doubtful. While lying prone upon the 
ground awaiting some decisive movement of the 
herd, a battalion of range cattle in search of 
water came galloping and thundering directly 
1 toward us, and when almost upon us suddenly 
halted, formed a semi-circle and stood gazing 
at us with wondering eyes, until we thought 
every bird of the air and beast of the field must 
know exactly where we—fearful things—were 
in hiding. George cussed a little and then rolled 
down the slope to a place where he could rise 
! to his knees without overtopping our shelter 
and cast missiles at the tarnal inquisitive spec¬ 
tators until they cantered away, when we again 
turned our attention to the game. To our great 
j satisfaction they became less restive and fed 
slowly in our direction. They passed from view 
under the hillock, and after a long wait—as it 
.j seemed to us—they began one by one to appear 
1 
. 
L 
on level ground about 150 yards from our hiding 
place. The buck was tantalizingly dilatory, and 
a watchful doe seemed certain to discover us 
qre he appeared, but luck was with 11s and as 
he came into range I shot him. He fell and 
then rose on his forelegs as thought his back 
were broken. Feeling confident of his capture, 
and thinking to get a doe, as a compensation 
for him, I hastily sent one more bullet in his 
direction, which failed to find him, and then 
sent one after the fleeing herd. 
George, believing T was concentrating my at¬ 
tention upon the buck, did not deem it neces¬ 
sary to give me the benefit of his experience 
and warned me to continue to shoot him until 
he was down; and so it befell that when I 
again turned my attention to the wounded 
animal, I was surprised and disgusted by seeing 
him moving away, and apparently gaining strength 
at every step. 
-It has always been a satisfaction that wounded 
game had never escaped me, and as George also 
had similar conscientious scruples, we started 
in pursuit of the buck and tried our level best, 
horseback and on foot, during the remainder 
of the morning, to again get within range of 
this animal in preference to seeking another, 
but he was getting well too fast and—long may 
he live. 
No doubt there were other bunches in this 
vicinity—in fact we saw one of them—but hav¬ 
ing set our hearts upon visiting the plateau 
which stretches from the “river” so many miles 
toward the south, we packed our kit in the early 
afternoon, passed through the remaining part of 
the Hoback Basin, surmounted the “river,” and 
at nightfall took possession of an abandoned 
camp site on an attractive wooded knoll facing 
the plains which reach out toward the beautiful 
Wind River Mountains on the eastern horizon. 
It was a rare privilege, one never to be for¬ 
gotten, to watch for the sun to peep over the 
ragged edge of this lofty range as we lay in 
our sleeping bags on several subsequent frosty 
mornings. 
Early the following day George and I set out 
on horseback in search of whatever this new 
hunting field might afford. We did not go 
upon the plains, but along the border, where 
occasional timber may be found, for in this are 
watered parks, in which sheltered places the 
antelope are apt to feed if frequently disturbed 
upon the plains as they were this year. Ere 
long we saw, upon a distant ridge, a herd of 
twenty-five grazing amid some fallen timber 
and we promptly adopted what would seem to 
be the customary tactics; we got rid of the 
horses and, with a proper regard for the wind, 
crawled, as near as possible to the animals 
without exciting their suspicion. Eventually we 
lay flat on the earth and watched them crop 
the grass at a distance of 400 yards. They were 
headed from us, but were so plainly in view 
that our Continued concealment was necessary, 
and a nearer approach was out of the question. 
Presently, for no accountable reason, they turned 
about face and began galloping directly toward 
us. As they slowed down and filed past a narrow 
opening in the undergrowth, less than seventy- 
five yards distant. George promised to notify 
me when the buck became visible. One after 
another appeared and disappeared until my rifle 
muzzle, which covered the opening, began to 
wobble and my closed eye became paralyzed. 
The buck lagged so far in the rear that he had 
to run to overtake his companions and conse¬ 
quently passed the dead line with a bound. 
They halted and bunched behind some bushes 
while endeavoring to locate a suspected enemy. 
Some alert heads were visible, but not that of 
the buck,, and fearing flight George pointed to 
an obscure and indefinite outline which he be¬ 
lieved to be the desired animal and suggested 
a try for him. I tried and that is probably all 
that I did, for each and every antelope ran like 
mad and seemed in the best of health. How 
I missed anything as close as that I shall never 
know, and I shall never forget my mortification. 
Remounting our horses we moved on and after 
an hour’s search came unexpectedly upon a 
bunch of nine, which disappeared over a rise 
in the ground before I could so much as dis¬ 
mount. We surmounted another wooded ridge 
and cautiously emerged from the timber into 
a park which sloped away from us very steeply 
to a stream. Peering over the edge, we saw a 
large herd—probably fifty—feeding in tall grass. 
A careful reconnaissance on George’s part finally 
located the buck, below many of the does, at the 
foot of the slope near the stream, some seventy- 
THE REAR GUARD. 
