San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-10-25
TEXAS SCENERY.
IN THE PANHANDLE. l.

there is no accounting for
names. l visited that Sec
ton for the first time about eight
years ago. Many inviting little
towns have sprung up where there
were staked plains then. Staked
plains! Do you know what that
signifies? The Pacific ocean at it's
deepest silence is the only fair
comparison. An endless plain as
far as the eye could see, stretching
for hundreds Of miles in every d.
rection-no hills, not even the
smallest undulation; no river or
creek or ditch--not a tree, not
shrub, hardly weed, at least not
a single weed or flower bold enough
to lift its head above the lawn of
short and curly mesquite grass,
green for two or three months
then withered and dry for the rest
Of the year-a trackless plain with
sky above and sky in the horizon.
Indeed, now since the sun has risen,
we see before us in the distance a
beautiful lake. The waters sparkle
in the sun light and the ever busy
wind seems to cause a slight
culver of the waves. Who would
have thought it! And then to
the right is another lake and to
the left another and even behind
us there is one. How strange that
we shall have passed without see
hight But steadily our mustangs
Jog along, and so does the lake in
front of us; and those to the sides
disappear while others come into
view. All day we ride with water
at both sides, water before and
behind, but Notwithstanding all
that, our canteens have been
emptied and our brave mustangs
find a substitute for water in nib.
bling the grass which contains
butlittle juice-for the glistening
lakes are but mirages to success
sively encourage and disappoint
the traveller.
There, high in the air, we espy
what appears to be wolf, a num-
Der of them in fact, but upon our
approach we find that they
are tiny prairie dogs. Such an
effect has the pure atmosphere,
that it magnifies substances and
seems to lift them into the air. In
fact some years later when the Fort
Worth and Denver railroad had
been built, | have seen the whole
train passing, like a phantom,
through the air.
These endless wastes are inhab
tied after all. Here and there a
town peopled with those little
ground squirrels, as busy as ants,
like the good woman in the village
Of the fisherman, each ant at her
own door or else cOngregated in
groups, they are chattering, per.
haps about little home affairs, for
from the great world outside they
welcome no communication aud it
is a wonder to me how and where
they find enough to chatter about.
But here is a coyote indeed, and
there another, and another! Our
eyes had not detected them at first
for, seeing us approach, they were
careful to be down in the grass,
the dry color OF which they we'll
nigh resemble. Our mustangs,
however are not too tired
to give chase. Hobbling the
pack mule and unloading some
of the mustangs burdens, we start
in pursuit. Now the coyotes start
on a run, then they sneak around
us in a circle, now sitting on their
launches or lying down watching
us with their wicked and suspicious
eyes. At last we have come with
in proper distance, and the rapid
and successive cracking of the rifles
soon proves that man is master Of
the brute. Still further in the dis
lance a flock Of long-billed curlews,
walking on stills so slender that
they seem inadequate to support
their large bodies, are slowly nod
ding their heads as they pick up
their food from the ground. We
dismount, drop the bride reins and
crawling upon our bodies approach
them in the hopes of securing
supper. But the birds seem to
have noticed us and move away
about as fast as we approach.
AT last there seems to be one
within possible range. L pull
the trigger and at the noise
the whole mass Of winged be-
ings are in the air. But the one bird
aimed at has been wounded. Its
comrades will not leave it in dis
tress, so above us they soar, whist
ling in anger and despair. 1t is an
easy matter for US now to get as