St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-04-23

ticn of the field, and uncovered SUBJ
way system which for completely out
did the underground railways in any
of our large cities. The tunnels ran
far out into the field. sometimes in
long, irregular single loops, and some
times crossing and recrossing other
tunnels, until it was no easy matter
to trace them. But all the tunnels led
to the hole into which l had accident
ally stepped, and this was very sug-
gestive Of great railroad terminus.
The whole represented no Insignificant
engineering feat on the part of the
rats, which had evidently been hunt
ing for grains of corn, for it was a
cornfield they had been working in,
and the gnawed husks, here and there,
showed that they had probably had at
least some success.
Later in the afternoon, came to
another cornfield where, for some rea-
son the shocks had been left since fall
Many of them were still standing, but
some had been blown over by the wind,
the snow, leaving in many places not
more than an inch The surface Of
this, particularly between the shocks,
was marked by narrow ridges, which
indicated as plainly as map could
have done the routes taken by some
small animals in their journeys from
one shock to another. BY carefully
scraping away the surface snow, l
found that the ridges were the roofs
of tunnels made by meadow mice, and
l presently verified the observation by
suddenly opening one Of the shocks, to
see several dark-brown, short-tailed
thieves scurrying away amongst the
cornstalks.
Going along country road a few
days later, l came upon the track Of
a mink The visible part of the trail
ended abruptly at hole in the snow,
and some 20 yards further on reap
peared at another hole. Between the
two holes there was a tunnel. and the
mink had evidently traversed the
length of 1t. Now why had he gone in
there? The surface was firm enough
to bear his weight. Doubtless he knew
that under the deep snow are to be
found many of the small creatures on
which he preys, and doubtless he has
enough success in hunting them to pay
him for his trouble It would be in
teresting to know whether he captures
the mice by running them down as
they are tunnelltn4 through the snow.
It must be a fearful moment for
mouse when he hears mink steadily
overtaking him ard at the same time
blocking all retreat. And the mink
himself, what stories he might tell us,
If he spoke the English language. His
accounts of his own deeds would dwarf
the biographies Of Jesse James and the
Younger brothers, and of their imita-
tors whose names appear from time to
time in the foot-high. scare-you-stiff
headings of the yellow journals. He
could tell us of muskrats murdered in
the darkness of their burrows; OF rab-
bits tracked to their death in the
moonlight, and OF the pitiless cutting
off of grouse imprisoned ber cath the
ICY crust of the snow. Aye, little we
know as we tramp across tie white
country on our snowshoes, what prob
lens are being solved, what lives are
being led, what tragedies are being en-
acted beneath our feet. But each story
which comes to light, no matte- how
full Of pathos it may be, tells us more
clearly than the last, that 1t is with
animals as with men-those which are
at to survive will survive, and those
which are unfit will 60 to the wall.
ERNEST HAROLD EkyNEs