hunt antelope take plenty of
ammunition, and when you return you will never tell how many
cartridges you used. Our antelope were tied on the running board of
the car and we went back to the road where Lucander was waiting.
Half the herd had crossed in front of him, but he had failed to
bring down an animal.

When the excitement was over I began to understand the significance
of what we had seen. It was slowly borne in upon me that our car had
been going, by the speedometer, at forty miles an hour and that the
_antelope were actually beating us_. It was an amazing discovery,
for I had never dreamed that any living animal could run so fast. It
was a discovery, too, which would have important results, for
Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum
of Natural History, even then was carrying on investigations as to
the relation of speed to limb structure in various groups of
animals. I determined, with Mr. Coltman's help, to get some real
facts in the case--data upon which we could rely.

There was an opportunity only to begin the study on the first trip,
but we carried it further the following year. Time after time, as we
tore madly after antelope, singly or in herds, I kept my eyes upon
the speedometer, and I feel confident that our observations can be
relied upon. We demonstrated beyond a doubt that the Mongolian
antelope can reach a speed of from fifty-five to sixty miles an
hour. This is probably the maximum _which is attained only in the
initial sprint_ and after a very short distance the animals must
slow down to about forty miles; a short distance more and they drop
to twenty-five or thirty miles, and at this pace they seem able to
continue almost indefinitely. They never ran faster than was
necessary to keep well away from us. As we opened the throttle of
the car they, too, increased their speed. It was only when we began
to shoot and they became thoroughly frightened that they showed what
they could do.

I remember especially one fine buck which gave us an exhibition of
really high-class running. He started almost opposite to us when we
were on a stretch of splendid road and jogged comfortably along at
thirty-five miles an hour. Our car was running at the same speed,
but he decided to cross in front and pressed his accelerator a
little. Coltman also touched ours, and the motor jumped to forty
miles. The antelope seemed very much surprised and gave his
accelerator another push. Coltman d