PARK AND CEMETERY. 
67 
DEVIL'S DEN, GETTYSBURG, 
The portion of the battlefield known as the 
Devils Den is well worthy a visit, aside from any 
connection with the great battle that raged about 
it. One comes on it on the way from Little Round 
Top to the more advanced lines of battle on the 
Union left. 
As its name suggests, it is a wierd place. The 
huge boulders are piled one on the other, as seen in 
the illustration, and between and under them are 
vacancies in numbers and of large size. Perhaps 
the most interesting sight is on the other side of the 
road shown in the picture. There is what is almost 
a subterranean creek, hidden nearly from view by 
boulders like those the illustration shows, one 
boulder on the top of the other. Sometimes a huge 
rock will have gathered a considerable amount of 
soil on its top and in this soil and in the soil by the 
side of these rocks vegetation has gained a foothold, 
and thrives so nicely that when at some distance 
away the scene is like a small woods. 
It takes no little agility to get from rock to rock, 
but to one who loves trees and flowers as I do, the 
sight of so many beauties just beyond reach is always 
a temptation to venture something to obtain them. 
In this den there must have been as many as 
thirty or more perennials and small shrubs. As of 
interest to many of your readers, I will name a few 
of them. Echium vulgare, CEnothera fruticosa, 
Verbena urticaefolia, Pycnanthemum linifolium, 
Ceanothus Americanus, Helianthemum Canadense, 
Asclepias rubra, Scutellaria integrifolia, Rhus cop- 
allina, Spiraea opulifolia, Pentstemon pubescens, 
Phlox subulata, Phlox pilosa, Rosalucida, Heuchcra 
Canadensis, Anemone Pennsylvania, Senecio 
aurea, Lobelia spicata, Corydalis glauca, Cyno- 
glossum Virginicum and many other things. Red 
cedars, butternut, Judas tree and various oaks 
abound. Formerly a fine large Judas tree grew 
along side one of the boulders shown in the picture, 
but it had disappeared when I visited the place last 
year. 
If any recollection of the battle is correct, there 
was not the terrific fighting about this, the Devils 
Den, that many other portions of the field saw. It 
was between the points which saw the fiercest charges. 
The confederates occupied it 
awhile when charging Little 
Round Top, and our own troops 
had it later in the day. And 
after the repulse of the confed- 
erates, their dead were thickly 
strewn about this portion of the 
field; and here it was that many 
of our own mortally wounded 
at last gave up their lives. It is 
not far from the Den, a little to 
the left of it, near the base of the 
Little Round Top, that the com- 
batants met in hand to hand con- 
flict, and where, on the next day, 
it was impossible to walk for 
the dead piled one on the other. 
But in the vicinity of the Den 
to-day nothing indicates a strife 
at any time. 
“The neighing troop, the flashing blade, 
“The bugle’s stirring blast; 
“The charge, the dreadful cannonade, 
“The din and shout are past; 
“Nor war’s wild note, nor glory’s peal, 
“Shall thrill with fierce delight 
“Those breasts that never more may feel 
“The rapture of the fight.” 
Though boulders strew all the fields about 
Gettysburg, there is no part of the battlefield like 
the Devil’s Den, and visitors to Gettysburg should 
not fail to see it. Joseph Meehan. 
Getting Rid of Ants. 
C. H. Fernold, of the Massachusetts Experiment 
Station, recommends the following which is a good 
and sure method: Make holes with a crowbar or 
convenient stick from 6 in. to 1 ft. deep and about 
15 in. apart, over the hill or portion of the lawn in- 
fested by the ants and into each hole pour two or 
three teaspoonfuls of bisulphide of carbon, stamp- 
ing the dirt into the hole as soon as the liquid is 
poured into it. The bisulphide of carbon at once 
vaporizes and, permeating the ground, destroys 
the ants but does not injure the grass. One should 
remember while using this substance that it is highly 
inflammable and no flame, not even a lighted cigar 
should be brought near it. 
