494 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



esters meet with many problems to solve as they roam 

 through its timbered areas, or study its rich, unusual forests. 

 Passing into the state of Texas, it is well to remember 

 something of its relative size ; what one may expect to 

 find in its flora 

 and fauna, and 

 the nature of 

 its general 

 physical topog- 

 raphy. Texas 

 c o n s t i t u tes 

 about one- 

 eleventh of the 

 entire area of 

 the United 

 States that is, 

 it has an extent 

 of some 262,- 

 290 square 

 miles, being 

 more than fif- 

 teen times the 

 size of the 

 Ki ngdom of 

 Denmark, and 

 containing 

 more square 

 miles by over 

 20,000 than the 

 whole of Aus- 

 tria - Hungary. 

 In describing 

 its general 

 physical geog- 

 raphy, an au- 

 thority at hand 

 says that "the 

 sui face fea- 

 tures are ex- 

 c e e d i n g 1 y 

 varied, the pre- 

 vailing ele- 

 ments being 

 steppes, or tree- 

 less plains, in 

 the northwest, 

 mountains west 

 of the Pecos 

 River, forests 

 in the east, 

 marshes adja- 

 cent to the 

 coast, low prai- 

 ries in the 

 southeast, and a combination of prairies and broken hills, 

 interspersed with forest growth and thickets of tall 

 shrubs (chaparral), in the centre." Apart from the cen- 

 tral region, these various characters are the extensions, 

 inward, of the physical characters of any partciular 



Figure 7. This is the same cha 

 has been awakened and is on 

 one keeps a friendly distance. 



bounding state. The same may be said of its flora and 

 fauna, both being peculiar to it centrally, while along its 

 southern boundaries they are more or less like that of 

 northern Mexico, western Louisiana eastwardly, eastern 



New Mexico 

 w e s t w a rdly, 

 and like the 

 southern parts 

 of the states 

 bounding it on 

 the north, 

 northwardly. 



In different 

 parts of Texas 

 we meet with 

 several species 

 of deer, and a 

 few of the 

 former millions 

 of buffalo are 

 still left. Along 

 the valley of 

 the Rio Grande 

 one may still 

 meet with the 

 mountain lion, 

 the ocelot, and 

 the fierce jag- 

 uar. Peccaries 

 and armadillos 

 are also found 

 there ; while 

 he prongbuck, 

 wild horse, 

 wolves, and 

 coyotes are 

 rapidly being 

 e x terminated. 

 There are many 

 small mam- 

 mals, as "prai- 

 rie dogs," mice, 

 rats, squirrels, 

 gophers, and 

 other rodents, 

 as well as 

 shrews, ra- 

 coons, and 

 opossums. It 

 has a rich bird 

 fauna, includ- 

 ing such spe- 

 cies as the 

 road- runner, 

 the scissor-tail flycatcher, peculiar birds of prey, and 

 a long list of water fowl, waders, and passeres, 

 while stragglers from northern Mexico frequently 

 come across the Rio Grande. Texas is justly cele- 

 brated for its rich and varied flora; but of this more 



ON THE DEFENSIVE 



ip shown in Figure 8, only there he was peacefully sleeping, and here he 

 the defensive ready to take up for his rights, or to be most peaceable if 



