TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 209 



photo ; also, a tarantula killing va- 

 riety on same page, second row, 

 first object). 



Our great Lone Star State, 

 and especially Western Texas, has 

 a large number of outing and at- 

 tractive hunting places, and a few 

 oif the many nature-sceneries and 

 hunting grounds in the vicinity of 

 San Antonio may find place here, 

 conjointly with some of the other 

 articles herein. Some of these 

 berry and various shrubbery and 

 outing and hunting places are 

 interestingly at variance as to 

 soil formation and plant and animal 

 life. 



The valley and hilly regions 

 between San Antonio ' and the 

 Leona up to the more mountainous 

 and more romantic regions, west 

 of San Antonio are entirely differ- 

 ent from the latter as to the 

 soil and plant life, which, from 

 San Antonio up to the hilly regions 

 of Helotes, sixteen miles northwest, 

 varies a great deal from the moun- 

 tainous regions in its prairie flora 

 and its immense area of mesquite 

 and partly cactus jungles and 

 forests of live-oak, post oak, hack- 

 berry and various shrubbery and 

 prairie trees, including, along the 

 rivulets and bottomland, the pecan 

 tree the mustang grape, tha walnut 

 tree, etc., whilst from the Helotes 

 settlement up to Gallagher's 

 ranch, BanSera, Waring, Kerrville, 

 Fredricksburg and New Braunfels 

 the vegetation in the hilly regions 

 there, with the imposing and high 

 cedar trees and other forast vege- 

 tation and rocky soil and clifflike 

 rock formations' and caverns, differs 

 a great deal from our flat land 

 around San Antonio. 



Some of the photo views herein 

 show this difference in soil and 

 environment, especially a photo- 

 graph I had prepared some time 

 ago during a visit to a relative 

 at the San Geronimo regions. 

 The country there, some twenty- 

 seven miles north-west of San 

 Antonio is exceedingly picturesque. 



reminding one of European touring 

 places in Switzerland, Baden-Baden 

 and Thuringia. The famous Gal- 

 lagher cattle ranch at Geronimo 

 also has some very fine nature 

 sceneries along the rivulets and 

 clifflike and high rock formations, 

 with the dense cedar breaks and 

 other mountain vegetation. At 

 some places fish, especially trout 

 and bass and large perch can be 

 pulled out as. quick as the line 

 drops in the water, especially 

 along the rock spaces of ilie creeks. 

 On the farm of Mr. E. Henderson, 

 Sr., San Geronimo, we find 

 the clifflike rock formations, with 

 caves and cavaties for wild animals, 

 and on the lower rock wall the 

 cliff-swallows had prepared their 

 funnel-shaped nests of mud. 

 Myriads of these swallows congre- 

 gate year after year along these 

 huge rock prescipices and re-occupy 

 the old mud nests or build new 

 ones, and it is a most fascinating 

 sight to behold how eagerly they 

 work at their nests and feed their 

 young brood. 



At the Leona hills, west of San 

 Antofiio, the hills are of different 

 appearance. In olden days they 

 abounded with large game, such 

 as deer, an occasional panther and 

 other wild animals of the jungles; 

 also the wild turkey. Of late 

 years only rarely some deer and, 

 of the animals of prey, - only an 

 occasional wildcat, some coyotes, a 

 lobo wolf or a squirrel, possum or 

 coon; plenty of quail and wild 

 doves and rabits; and in winter, 

 some wild ducks on the creeks and 

 banks, the chaparral cock and 

 the ever present, but now nearly 

 exterminated rattlesnake are met 

 with, the lattei mostly in the 

 dense cactus jungles, which harbor 

 prairie rats and mice in the pecu- 

 lialry arranged and interesting 

 ratnests, which are composed of 

 gathered and accumulated, piled 

 up (often in high mounds, like 

 beaver huts) wood particles, manure 

 and remnants of cacti; and they 



