nder
limbs, delicately-formed heads, and large, beautiful eyes. The horns
are black, and rather short; they have no branches, like the antlers
of the red-deer, but have a single projection on each horn, near the
head, and the extreme points of the horns curve suddenly inwards,
forming the hook or prong from which the name of the animal is
derived. Their colour is dark yellowish brown. They are so fleet that
not one horse in a hundred can overtake them; and their sight and
sense of smell are so acute that it would be next to impossible to
kill them, were it not for the inordinate curiosity which we have
before referred to. The Indians manage to attract these simple little
creatures by merely lying down on their backs and kicking their heels
in the air, or by waving any white object on the point of an arrow,
while the hunter keeps concealed by lying flat in the grass. By these
means a herd of antelopes may be induced to wheel round and round an
object in timid but intense surprise, gradually approaching until they
come near enough to enable the hunter to make sure of his mark. Thus
the animals, which of all others _ought_ to be the most difficult to
slay, are, in consequence of their insatiable curiosity, more easily
shot than any other deer of the plains.

May we not gently suggest to the reader for his or her consideration
that there are human antelopes, so to speak, whose case bears a
striking resemblance to the prong-horn of the North American prairie?

Dick's horse was no match for the antelope, neither was Crusoe; so
they pulled up shortly and returned to their companions, to be laughed
at.

"It's no manner o' use to wind yer horse, lad, after sich game.
They're not much worth, an', if I mistake not, we'll be among the
buffalo soon. There's fresh tracks everywhere, and the herds are
scattered now. Ye see, when they keep together in bands o' thousands
ye don't so often fall in wi' them. But when they scatters about in
twos, an' threes, an' sixes ye may shoot them every day as much as ye
please."

Several groups of buffalo had already been seen on the horizon, but as
a red-deer had been shot in a belt of woodland the day before they
did not pursue them. The red-deer is very much larger than the
prong-horned antelope, and is highly esteemed both for its flesh
and its skin, which latter becomes almost like chamois leather when
dressed. Notwithstanding this supply of food, the hunters could not
resist the temptatio