s deer, antelope,
and gray wolf. Many of them were devoted to this sport,--General Custer,
for instance. I have myself hunted with many of the descendants of
Custer's hounds. In the early 70's the ranchmen of the great plains
themselves began to keep greyhounds for coursing (as indeed they had
already been used for a considerable time in California, after the
Pacific coast jack-rabbit), and the sport speedily assumed large
proportions and a permanent form. Nowadays the ranchmen of the cattle
country not only use their greyhounds after the jack-rabbit, but also
after every other kind of game animal to be found there, the antelope
and coyote being especial favorites. Many ranchmen soon grew to own fine
packs, coursing being the sport of all sports for the plains. In Texas
the wild turkey was frequently an object of the chase, and wherever the
locality enabled deer to be followed in the open, as for instance in the
Indian territory, and in many places in the neighborhood of the large
plains rivers, the whitetail was a favorite quarry, the hunters striving
to surprise it in the early morning when feeding on the prairie.

I have myself generally coursed with scratch packs, including perhaps
a couple of greyhounds, a wire-haired deer-hound, and two or three long
legged mongrels. However, we generally had at least one very fast
and savage dog--a strike dog--in each pack, and the others were of
assistance in turning the game, sometimes in tiring it, and usually in
helping to finish it at the worry. With such packs I have had many a
wildly exciting ride over the great grassy plains lying near the Little
Missouri and the Knife and Heart Rivers. Usually our proceedings on such
a hunt were perfectly simple. We started on horseback and when reaching
favorable ground beat across it in a long scattered line of men and
dogs. Anything that we put up, from a fox to a coyote or a prong-buck,
was fair game, and was instantly followed at full speed. The animals we
most frequently killed were jack-rabbits. They always gave good runs,
though like other game they differed much individually in speed. The
foxes did not run so well, and whether they were the little swift, or
the big red prairie fox, they were speedily snapped up if the dogs had a
fair showing. Once our dogs roused a blacktail buck close up out of
the brush coulie where the ground was moderately smooth, and after a
headlong chase of a mile they ran into him, threw him, and killed h