Genre:

Essay, Travelogue

Relevant illustrations:

eng. [2]

Subjects:

Hunting, Natural History, Animal Behaviour, Natural Imperialism, Extinction, Collecting

    Advises that in some areas of the West, antelope 'have not been hunted much, and are not familiar with the whiles of the white man', and they thus 'have as much curiosity as a woman, and will run into all kinds of danger to investigate any strange object they may discover' (367). Claims that the 'speed of the antelope is probably not excelled by that of any other animal in this country, wild or domestic, except the greyhound' (368). Warns, however, that the 'antelope, one of the brightest and most graceful and beautiful of all our Western game animals, is fast disappearing from our broad plains, owing to the ceaseless slaughter of it that is carried on by "skin hunters", Indians, "foreign noblemen", and others who come to this country year after year and spend the entire summer in hunting', and this is 'true of all the large game of the great West. The buffalo, elk, deer, mountain-sheep, etc., are being slaughtered by the thousands every year—tenfold faster than the natural increase. And the time is near, very near, when all these noble species will be extinct. The sportsman or naturalist who desires to preserve a skin or head of any of them must procure it very soon or he will not be able to get it at all' (369).