perhaps broken bones also. Following these English greyhounds--which
have such wonderful speed and keenness of sight--after big game on
vast plains, is very different from running after the slow hounds and
foxes in the East, and requires a very much faster horse and quite
superior riding. One has to learn to ride a horse--to get a perfect
balance that makes it a matter of indifference which-way the horse may
jump, at any speed--in fact, one must become a part of one's mount
before these hunts can be attempted.

Chasing wolves and rabbits is not as dangerous, for they cannot begin
to run as fast as antelope. And it is great fun to chase the big
jack-rabbits. They know their own speed perfectly and have great
confidence in it. When the hounds start one he will give one or two
jumps high up in the air to take a look at things, and then he
commences to run with great bounds, with his enormously long ears
straight up like sails on a boat, and almost challenges the dogs to
follow. But the poor hunted thing soon finds out that he must do
better than that if he wishes to keep ahead, so down go the ears, flat
along his back, and stretching himself out very straight, goes his
very fastest, and then the real chase is on.

But Mr. Jack-Rabbit is cunning, and when he sees that the long-legged
dogs are steadily gaining upon him and getting closer with every jump,
he will invariably make a quick turn and run back on his own tracks,
often going right underneath the fast-running dogs that cannot stop
themselves, and can only give vicious snaps as they jump over him.
Their stride--often fifteen and twenty feet--covers so much more
ground than the rabbit's, it is impossible for them to make as quick
turns, therefore it is generally the slow dog of the pack that catches
the rabbit. And frequently a wise old rabbit will make many turns and