Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-11-27
GRoUNoHoe PARADISE.
A Region Where They Undermine Rail-
ways and 1.-Two with Gray Rabbits.

A Region Where They Undermine Rail-
ways and 1.-Two with Gray Rabbits.
They have an officer called the
grounding inspector on the Peachbot-
tom railroad in Lancaster county, Pa"
said a travelling man to a New York
Sun reporter, land he's n very impor-
tant officer too. The Peachbottom road
isn't very long nor n very wide one,
and 1t runs from Peachbottom on the
Susquehanna river diagonally across
the southern corner of Lancaster That
is the paradise of the groundhogs. .
II have been in the famous ground
hog pastures of Connecticut and New
Hampshire. where these animals an
nually eat up over seven hundred thou
sand dollars worth of clover for the
farmers, although there is a price on
their heads and they are hunted night
and day; but those choice abiding
places for groundhogs arc sparsely pop
ulatcd by them when compared with
that little neck of country through
which the Peachbottom railroad goes.
They run the whole country there.
They have honeycombed the meadows
with their burrows until farmer can't
walk over his farm without stumbling
into one of the holes at every step, and,
not satisfied with that, have set about
in systematic way to undermine the
Peachbottom railroad. They have bur-
rowcd it SO successfully that a man had
to be appointed, SO l was told at Ok
ford, to keep Il constant lookout along
the line SO that no train will be dumped
into the ditch from a track made I'M
stable by the burrowing of groundhogs.
This Inspector reports the scattering of
n colony of twenty-five grouudhogs in
one night, they having already
made an excavation in the railway en-
banllment big enough for train to run
through. The slate and shale soil of
that part of the country is what the
grounding likes, rs it raises big clover
and is just the thing to burrow in.
The presence of so many grounding
holes in that region has also caused a
big increase in gray rabbits, according
to the farmers, although the rabbits
have always been more than plentiful.
These rabbits do not burrow, and have
consequently always have been more
or less exposed to the attacks
of hawks, foxes, hunters and owls.
Tho grounding burrows, however,
they have suddenly discovered, offer
them excellent protection from their
enemies, and they seem to be living
as contented'J and undisturbed in
the burrows with the groundhogs as
the burrowing owls and prairie dogs do
on the western plains. This arrange
ment is especially advantageous to the
rabbits so far a3 foxes are concerned,
as fox tTill not enter a grounding
hole under any consideration.
"Fhc abundance of groundhogs in
southern Lancaster county has also
given rise to new sport, which hasn't
much TO recommend it. This is the
matching Of fighting dogs against
groundhogs, and scarcely night passes
that match is not fought in some
oody's cellar or room fitted up for the
purpose. Dogs arc trained purposely to
fight groundhogG, and those who have
witnessed matches say that the ground
hog is such fierce and gamy fighter
when he Is cornered and has to fight
that the dog has to be good one with n
big reputation where the sports will
not give odds in favor of the ground
hog"