New-York tribune., 1901-06-23
RAILROAD ANIMALS.
SOME SPECIES ADAPT THEMSELVES
READILY To THE INVASION OF
TRAINS AND LOCOMOTIVES.
THEMSELVES
From The Spectator.

From The Spectator.
The railway fauna other than the horses used
10 shunt thc truck, is an amusing growth of
recent years. Numbers of animals which at first
resented or feared the trains have now become
railway volunteers or hangers on in some form
o another Most of them. like the visitors to
Mr. Dooey's bar, come there for refreshment
and change But some have taken TO the iron
road as regular means of getting living or
OF adding To their resources. There is hardly d
C cuntry in the world in which some wild Great
regular walters on the trains or
haunters Of the line itself or of the stations.
The earliest Impressions excited by the railway
animal minds -. not always favorable. The
buffalo used occasionally To charge the OF
he transcontinental lines in America. and
male wild Indian elephant fought with and was
VanquIshed by contractors engine When the
hrSt ~ ali lndlaH lines was opened from Bur
wan To Calcutta holy Brahmini bull conceived
thdt the engine was IN some sense an outrage
anu gave 1t battle with disastrous results.
Some fear felt to the effect which this
LntoWard incident might have on the people.
whose sacred animal had been killed by the new
invention Fortunately. the popular interpreta-
uCn Of the omen in favor of the engine.
They made offerings To it, and decorated it with
flowers. as being the stronger divinity The mis-
takes made by animals untouched by the civil
izing influences OF the railway are not always
50 harmless To others. Quite recently for in
stance. lion Oh the Be!ra line visited sleep
ing carriage a siding, seized a European who
was sleeping in 1t, dragged him out and de-
Voured him. The victim II was understood. had
intended To make the carriage ambuscade for
the lion. which froquented the station. but not
realizing that familiarity with trains had bred
not respect but contempt on the lions part
went To sleep in the belief that the lion was
afraid of object foreign to its experience
Il portion OF a train
But after these early MISUNDERSTANDING the
animals make the best of the railway. and in
time find il II their best friends When Mr.
Vaughan Cornish was on the Canadian prairieS
last winter studying the forms of snow and snow
waves, which formed the subject Of a paper
read recently before the Geographical Society,
he observed that the railroad had entirely al
tered the habit OF the wolves in winter For
merlN, in the days Of the old wagon teams and
prairie SChOonerS. the wolves used To follow
the camps across to the great West. just as
they followed the buffalo herds stealing all the
stock they could and picking up the leavings
or the camp fires. and eating the saddles
ard harness OF the mules Now they come down
To the Canadian Pacific the Grand Trunk
lii g. and watch for the trains. A transconti-
mn - go on at regular hours. The passengers
consume three solid meals a day, the black cooks
and walters have theirs also: and plenty of
spare t""d, bones bread and trimmings, is
thrown overheard. In the gray cold awn the
hungry coyotes. their tails tucked between their
shaking legs, may be standing in the snow
win their short ears priCked up like an anxious
Ten rlcrs waiting to sec what the mornings
clear up of the ears Will to he thrown
out OF the windows for deserving prairie dwell
ers Sometimes a great gray wolf the very
persOnlnCatiCn of cold and famine. is viewed,
sitting by d sage bush. in the drift of snow DOW
der lifted before the icy morning wind his
long, sharp nose uplifted in line with his spine
the cutting blast rufiiing up the fur on his back
waiting for the to rise and warm him and
Tor the train 10 pass and leave him beef bone
10 take the edge of hunger off. Something of the
same KIND happens along the Siberian Railway
where the Steppe jackalS and foxes are always
more numerous around the stations and along
the sleeping sIdings than elseW here and in India
the Jackals regularly visit the line on the way
home from their nightly proWL