2i 8 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



the rocky region from the Canadian line to 

 Mexico. 



Dog towns are dry towns. My cowboy 

 friend had repeated to me what everyone thus 

 far had told him: 



Prairie dogs dig down to water. 



Prairie dogs, snakes, and owls all use the same 

 den. 



The water supply of dog towns and also their 

 congested life so interested me that I visited a 

 number of them to study the manners and cus- 

 toms of these citizens. 



For two months not a drop of rain had fallen 

 in Cactus Center. Not a bath nor a drink had 

 the dogs enjoyed. I hurried into the town im- 

 mediately after a rain thinking the dogs might 

 be on a spree. I had supposed they would be 

 drinking deeply again and swimming in the pools. 

 But there was no interest. I did not even see 

 one have a drink, although all may have had one. 

 A few dogs were repairing the levee-crater rim 

 of their holes, but beyond this things went on as 

 usual. The rain did not cause dog town to 

 celebrate. 



On a visit to the "Biggest dog town in the 

 world," near the Staked Plains in Texas, and 

 where there were dogs numbering many millions, 

 I watched well drillers at a number of places* 

 Several of these wells, in the limits of dog town, 



