can start after them again, but usually the mother has no trouble in
holding them. I have several times killed young antelope whose legs
had been bitten up by coyotes, but which had got away. One hot day
last summer a gang of section-men were working in a railroad cut west
of here, when suddenly a big buck antelope ran down one side of the
cut, across the track and up the other side. His sudden dash into the
midst of them startled the men, and as they stood looking up where he
had crossed, a coyote suddenly plunged down the side of the cut, just
as the antelope had done. The readiest of the section men threw a
hammer at him, and the wolf turned and scrambled up the bank and was
not seen again.
"I wonder what the men thought?" said Jack.
"Two or three years ago I camped one afternoon near Rock Creek, and
as there was very little feed, we turned the horses loose at night
to pick among the sage-brush and grease wood. Early in the morning,
before sunrise, while the man with me was getting breakfast, I
started out to get the horses. They were nowhere to be seen, and I
climbed to the top of the hill back of camp, from which, as it was
the only high place anywhere about, I felt sure that I could see
them. Just before I got to the top of the hill an old doe antelope
suddenly came in view, closely followed by a coyote. Both of them
seemed to be running as hard as they could, and both had their
tongues hanging out as if they had come a long way. Suddenly, almost
at the heels of the antelope--much closer to her than the other
wolf--appeared a second coyote which now took up the running, while
the one that had been chasing her stopped and sat down and watched.
The antelope ran quite a long distance, always bearing a little to
the left, and now seeming to run more slowly than when I first saw
her. As she kept turning, it was evident that she would either run
around the hill on which I stood, or would come back near it. At
first I was so interested in watching her that I forgot to look at
the wolf that had stopped. When I did so, he was no longer in the
same place, but was trotting over a little ridge that ran down from
the hill and was watching the chase that was now so far off. He could
easily have cut across and headed the antelope, but he knew too well
what she would do to give himself that trouble. After a little, it
was evident that the antelope would come back pretty near to the
hill, but on the other side of it from where she had passed before,
and the wolf which I had first seen chasing her, trotted out two or
three hundred yards on the prairie and sat down. The antelope was now
coming back almost directly towards him, and I could see that there
were two wolves behind her, one close at her heels and the other a
good way further back. The first wolf now seemed quite excited. He no
longer sat up, but crouched close to the ground, every few moments
raising his head very slowly to take a look at the doe, and then
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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