Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-07

the death. and when enc individual is
wounded its companions usually come to
its assistance Small chance has the hun
ter who finds himself engaged in combat
with them under Instantaneous circum-
stances. With their razor-lke tusks they
will tear him literally to pieces. In the
United States the arnIadillo is practically
restricted to this region. Rattlesnakes are
plenty, lizards of a great variety of species
iEnumerable, and there is no end of cent?
pedes, tarantulas and scorpions. The
sting of one species of scorpion, known as
the 'vinegaroon,' Is said to be sure death.
ella monsters are reported to be found in
the chapparal, but saw none there. Quail
Of two very rare species, the black and the
blue. are abundant, as Well as the ordinary
Bob White. There are also wild doves of
species not known elsewhere in this coun-
try;
surface water. The stream beds are all
'arroyos'-the Spanish name for waterless
gulles. The ranches commonly depend on
subterranean water for their stock using
Windmills to pump it to the surface from
depth sometimes exceeding 500 feet / rode
horse that had been foaled on one of
these ranches and had never seen water
except in trough. When We came to
running stream he was frightened that
he would not go Eear it. Around the edge
of the chapparal country are many beauti-
full spring rivers. which burst out of the
ground and flow short distances before
they are absorbed by the thirsty soil.
A Rich Region.
1.-THE Rio Grande for a long part Of its
course. from Eagle Pass to Laredo, flows
over coal beds which will prove ultimately
to be of great value. In the midst of the
desert New York company has opened an
asphalt mine. from which an unusually rich
quality of this product is shipped to the
north to be manufactured into insulating
material and for other purposes. The city
of Houston is being paved with asphalt
from this mine. Geoiogically speaking, the
region is quite remarkable and from the
naturaiist's point of view it IS full of in
tereSt. There are many deposits of the fos-
sill bones of camels, mastodons and horses.
Along the lower Rio Grande are immense
beds of the biggest fossil oysters known.
Some Of these oysters were over a foot in
| length. and in shape they resemble the
| toothsome bivalve SO much loved by the
epcure today. Orce upon time Texas
was under water and a large part of its
area was one great oyster bed-probably
| the biggest oyster bed that ever existed.
| The shells which these oysters left behind
| form a continuous sheet twenty feet thick
and extending nearly half way across the
| state. The deposit equals in bulk and thick
ness the coal seams of Pennsylvania These
oysters were of a great variety of species
| long extinct. Some of the shells bear re-
| semblance to the upper part Of the human
Uranium, and are called by the natives
skulls The shells of another species weigh
| as much as ten pounds pair. Other kinds
were shaped like boats, rams horns and
cocks combs.
1T was in the chapraral region Of which
we are speaking that the great grazing in
| dustry of this country started. This was
| the original home of the long-horn steer
After The civil war shrewd Yankees estab.
| lished ranches, gathered in the innumer-
able wild cattle, and branded the MAYER
| icks thus starting herds which increased 81
| rapidly as soon to overflow ir to northwest
| Texas and later on into Montana, unit
| finally the whole of the plains and the
| Rocky mountain region were populated
| Until the era of the barbwire fence arrived
| that is to say. UP to ten years ago-there
| was an annual hegira from the country OF
| the chapparal to the northwestern terri
tory, the drive often numbering 30Go0t
| head. Those were the days when the COW.
| boy and the ranger were in full bloom, and
] the old-tirne trails leading out of the deser
| of the cacti are full of romance and story
| RENE BACHE