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 him before he could rise. (His stiff-legged bounds sent him along at a tremendous pace at first, but he seemed to tire rather easily.) On two or three occasions we killed whitetail deer, and several times antelope.  Usually, however, the antelopes escaped.  The bucks sometimes made a good fight, but generally they were seized while running, some dogs catching by the throat, others by the shoulders, and others again by the flank just in front of the hind-leg.  Wherever the hold was obtained, if the dog made his spring cleverly, the buck was sure to come down with a crash, and if the other dogs were anywhere near he was probably killed