The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-10

that it touches and is as deadly to vege-
table existence as the salt of the Dead
Sea is to animal life. Some plantations
have been turned into veritable sandbars
in this way, and their powers of produce
tion ruined for years to come.
More wanton in it's destruction of game
than the hunters themselves, is the over
flow which leaves not a dry spot of
ground for all the thousands of Gods
creatures that inhabit the woods. Deer
are driven crazed to the hills where they
rush madly about among the unfamiliar
scenes, frequently running into the very
cabin yards. An instance of the late
overflow is told In Natcnez, Miss, of a
small drove of deer running through the
streets of the town one morning short
| ly after dawn. They had evidently been
driven from the swamps of Concordia
Parish, La. and had swum the Miss
issippi river to get to the beautiful bluffs
of Natchez on the other side. Mention
has been made of the single deer In vi
dalia, La, that was the innocent cause
of the fright of the whole town.
A>gentleman near Natchez succeeded in
catching several Of these beautiful crea-
lures within an enclosure. and fed them
until the water went down. when he turn
native wooded homes.
lection of the deer during the flood sea-
son, and any one upon whom the guilt
can be fixed of Staying them. will suf-
fer the full penalty of his crime.
Bears which have not the wonderful
! locomotive powers of the deer, are forced
to the trees where they may make the
best of the gloomy situation before
them.
Rabbits hop up on cnunxs. and there
1tr1tfI he for faadtuo
meagrely on what vegetation they can
reach by swimming from chunk to
chunk. II Is not uncommon while pad
ding through the woods to hear a sud-
den splash, and see a little body go clip
ping through the water, curving here
and there. until lost to view through the
bushes They prove an easy prey to hun
tiers. But it is a pity to kill the harm
less little creatures, who only squeal
to snuggle deeper within the bosom to
| escape the eyes they fear.
| The ants so resourceful in their or
| binary methods of providing for them
| selves, have even a recourse to which
they resort in high water for preserva-
| ton.
| Occasionally II one is travelling through
a shallow part of the overflow, one will
notice small reddish-brown balls, per-
meter, carried hither and tnitner by the
wind and current as If they were the
| lightest, fiuffiest of masses. Upon exam
nation these balls will be found to be
composed of thousands of little ants,
worked together in heterogeneous, In
| tricate network each tiny body perfect
| ly motionless the whole drenched by
every wave, and yet as cohesive as glue.
| These balls are submerged the merest
| fraction-probably not a s;ngse unit of its
many parts is carried completely under
Should one wonderingly take one OF
| them up on fiat. stick to scrutnze II
more closely, shake it little, and dis
turb it. it will suddenly develop into
bristling, moving mass, sending forth
little accommodating expeditions up and
down the stick. II shaken violently it will
dissolve, as it were, spreading forth in
every direction.
Probably nothing receives more benefit
from the levees than the railroads. Gen
orally when a break occurs, those por-
| tons of a railroad inundated, have tc
suspend business until the water has
receded. Whole sections of track are
sometimes swept away. and cases have
been known where the track has been
washed literally to a point five miles dis
tant from the main line. But where the
submergence is slight, and there has
been no strong current, trains will run
for long distances over the flooded track
Men are put or the pilots of the en-
gines to remove the drift and brush az
the train moves slowly forward Be-
tween Memphis md yicksburg. passen.
ger trains were r N until the water en-
tered the firebox.p, extinguishing the