234 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



can be imagined for Indians to 

 live at; the immense rock pre- 

 cipices and caves and crevices hav- 

 ing offered shelter to the Indians as 

 well as the wild beasts — now also 

 more or less extinct. Near to 

 our camp lives an old experienced 

 trapper who has in late years 

 cleared these regions of all sorts of 

 wild animals as well as dangerous 

 reptiles, and he made some good 

 money by his trade — the prepared 

 skins of the wild cat, panther, fox, 

 opossum, civetcat, armadillo, coon, 



ands of them covered the immense 

 and and partly rotund cavern 

 and high precipices of the huge 

 rock walls, and the photograph 

 shows this elegantly, besides the 

 immense rock walls, caverns and 

 caves and and some of the outing 

 party sitting and standing inside 

 the arch of these huge rock 

 caverns and beneath the masses 

 of swallow nests. That was a tu- 

 mult uo us noise; a screeching, 

 whirling around, and intensely 

 fascinating sight to behold as 



:,J^^;^^I^S^l"'^S^fc^-i^^. - -v^ 



San Antonio Tourists at Medina River Embankments, Inside an Immense Cave-Like 



Rocky Excavation — The Upper Curved Roof Studded With Thousands op thb 



Cliff-Swallows' Mud Nests; In Olden Days the Haunts of Large Wild 



Beasts and the Indian; About 42 Miles Northwest of San Antonio 



skunk, lobo wolf and coyote and 

 other jungle animals. 



Some of these intensely attrac- 

 tive regions, besides wild animals, 

 owls, hawks, and serpents, are 

 the , hosts of the interesting 

 cliffswallow alluded to in a separate 

 chapter of these reminescenees; and 

 never in my life have I come 

 across such niasses of swallow 

 nests as seen also on the photo 

 illustration that was taken near 

 our camp. Hundreds and thous- 



we approached near and under 

 the nests to prepare some views 

 of them — and the one in this 

 photo view only shows some 

 large masses, but not all of the 

 myriads of nests in the adjoining 

 excavations. 



These swallow-made houses were 

 all well preserved — modern civiliza- 

 tion with some vandals not having 

 destroyed the nests as yet — as 



