Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1907-11-21
sHEPHERDsToWN w. va THURSDAY. NOVEMBER IL 1907
md so these would not be worn away

ana 30 tnese W0ulu noI DC Woru away
as they are.
Ants do not materially affect the
lay Of the land in temperate climates,
but in the tropics they completely
change the surface, and termitss, the
so-called white ants, do an even
vaster work than the true ants.
All dead timber is reduced to dust
and every morsel of organic matter,
whether dead rat or dead elephant,
ia cut mp into fragments and carried
off BIT for the lsbors of ants all
tr3 ,Jicsl forests would be utterly i'm
y, sab.e. Tue forests Of Southern
a .ska, where termites do not exist,
are, as a matter of fact, completely
blocked by fallen timber, which lies
where it falls until it slowly decays.
OF four-legged animals none can
compare with the beaver as map
maker. The beaver is the most un-
tiring engineer in existence, and his
dams, one of which was found to be
1880 feet long, have turned vast
areas Of forest into swamp and have
in many cases diverted the courses of
rivers.
All through the vast North west you
will find great openings in the forest,
gladss covered deep with peat and
bearing only coarse grass. These
gladss, which are sometimes hundreds
of acres in extent, are the sites Of an
.cient beaver lakes. Either the dams
have burst and the water run away
or else pesty deposits have filled up
the site Of the ancient lake.
We find fossil skeletons of beaver
the Castoroides ohioensis which
was about the size of black bear.
Such a creature must have been cap
able of completely altering any land
scape, and no forest monarch could
have been safe from his monstrous
iucisors.
Some animals have the peculiar and
very unpleasant property of being able
to turn fertile country into a howl
ing desert. or these, the worst offen-
ders are sheep. A large part of New
Mexico has been converted into sandy
deserts since sheep farming began IN
that territory. The soil is naturally
light, and while cattle do no harm,
sheep in grazing pull up the tufts OF
grass by the roots and so destroy it
entirely.
Goats -act in q similar fashion.
Early in the sixteenth century st.
Helena was covered with dense forest.
In 1913 the Portuguese introduced
goats. These multiplied rapidly and
soon destroyed all the young trees.
Thus the torrential rains got hold OF
the soil and, washing it down the
slopes, left the hillsidss bare. By
l72O the forest had practically van
ished and the islands beauty was
ruined.
A third desertmaker is that pretty
little marmot known as the prairie
dog. So fast do they multiply that a
"town" of prairie dogs near RuShyille,
Neb., destroyed $500 acres of good
pasture land il three years.
Animals also do good work as road
makers. Tie great trails made by
the now extinct buffalo in their an
nual migrations across the Western
prairies are still plainly visible, wide
hard-beatsn depressions.
The monstrous brown bear OF Alas
ka, which is nearly as big as an OK
and weighs up to half ton, is also q
first.class roadmaker. All along the
banks of the streams the miner
finds fine, broad trails trOdden out.
But woe betide the human invader ii
he meet the original engineer when
trespassing on his domain