CHAPTER XVI 
DOG-TOWN DIGGINGS 
ae thirty years ago a cowboy took 
me out to see “The big Dog-town.” 
This metropolis was in the heart of 
the great plains near the Kansas-Colorado line. 
For five hours we rode westward along the 
southern limits of the town. It extended on 
over the horizon more than two miles wide and 
about forty miles long. A town with a popu- 
lation of two million! 
Its visible inhabitants would have astounded 
a census-taker or a dog-catcher. Thousands 
of prairie dogs were yipping and barking more 
than sixty times a minute, and stub tails were 
whizzing away at the same time. We rode out 
among the crowded and protesting dogs and 
stopped to watch them. A number ducked 
into their holes. 
Around each hole was an earthy collar less 
than two feet across and four or five inches high. 
At a distance this earthy collar surrounding 
the hole had the appearance of a low mound. 
Evidently this mound is to keep out storm water. 
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