The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-12-05
How Animal and Vegetable Life Is
Protected.
THE TRIALS OF PROSECUTORS
The Trade Rat and His Nightly Visits
The ella TIonstsr is Seldom Seen
= Year in Death VaIIey-An In
written Law Among The Timers.

! OF the desert the cactus comes hrSt
with its numberless species. They
are all armed with long or short
tough spines that can penetrate
the thickest boot. The solitary
and often grotesque Joshua" or
Yucca, the mesquite, the catsclaw,
and numberless shrubs whose
names have not been written, all
are armed in one way or another.
Some exude poisonous sap, others
nauseating odors. The sage brush
is about the only one that does
not seem to have any protection.
In the animal kingdom most are
either armed with sharp teeth,
spines, odors, or poison to serve to
keep their enemies at a distance,
while the others depeud upon their
feetness or artful skulking and
hiding.
The spiked and repulsive ella
monster, the horned toad, the
sidewinder with his two horns and
deadly fangs, and its cousin, the
desert rattlesnake; the tarantula,
scorpion, and desert bee, each of
whose sting is exceedingly painful
and some times fatal, are among
the deserts denizens. There are
many varieties of lizards, large
and small and of many colors,
which protect themselves by their
speed alone. The proving coyote,
bobcat, mountain lion, jack rabbit,
cottontail, mountain sheep, ibex,
antelope and an occasional deer
are there.
Among the smaller animals are
the gopher. kangaroo rat, trade
rat, hydropeobia skunk, ground
squirrel and innumerable mice.
But the traveller seldom sees any
Of these. The prospector, how
ever, becomes acquainted with
them. The first, or at the latest,
second night of his stay in any one
camp, he will be visited by trade
rat, that will carry away all that
portion of his outfit that is not too
heavy for his ratship to handle and
religiously leave some stick or
stone in its place.
y hydrophobia skunk will be
apt to call and lunch from any
bacon rinds that may be lying
about, not disdaining a nip at Mr..
Prospector's nose if the opportuni-
ty offers. 1t is said and firmly be-
lieved by the sons of the desert
that the bite of this little skunk
produces hydrophobia The ella
monster is seldom seen. and the
writer after having spent nearly a
year on the borders of Death Val
ley has yet to see one of them at
large. Rattlesnakes are also
scarce, except in some favorable
locality.
The mountain sheep and ibex
are gradually becoming tame, and
this summer they have come to
springs where miners were camDed
as regularly as domestic stock and
with little more timidity. The
mountain quail follows the miner
and his burro. In the Avawatz
Mountains they were unknown uu-
til this year, but they are abun.
dant there now. 1t is an unwrit-
ten law among the miners on the
desert that no game animals or
birds shall be killed or in any way
disturbed unless one is in actual
want, and he must make proof con-
vincing Of that fact if he kills q
quail or sheep.
All life on the desert lives by S
power to resist thirst. All desert
plants are so constructed that they
are able TO conserve and store M
moisture against the time OF
drought. This necessity has
wrought peculiar forms of both
animals and plants, and in time il
also leaves its indtlible mark upon
men vino dwell amid It's wastes.
The leaves Of all desert trees are
small and thick, SO that they ex.