214 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. ii, 1906. 
Their leaves or stems or both are soft and 
spongy. Besides the Opuntia there is another 
large family of cactus, the Mammilaria — viznagas, 
in Spanish—some of them the size of a fist or 
smaller,- others as big as barrels, protected by 
thorns too, but not so as to make it impossible 
for an animal to gnaw them. This form of 
cactus is very abundant about San Luis Potosi, 
and seems to be much depended on by both wild 
and domestic animals, as an article of food. 
Then there is the organ cactus in several 
varieties, of some of which the fruit is especially 
abundant and succulent. One form, akin to the 
giant cactus of Arizona, has a delicious little 
apple, pitaya, of which deer especially are 
excessively fond. 
But besides the cactuses—and I have enu¬ 
merated by no means all of them—there is the 
large agave family, the maguey or century plant, 
the soap root {lechuguilla), etc., and the yuccas. 
All contain a surprisingly large proportion _ of 
water, and while usually thorny, are not as spiny 
as cactus. Deer feed extensively on lechuguilla, 
a dwarf agave, the root of which is an excellent 
substitute for soap. As to the fruit of many of 
these plants, it is to be remembered that the 
climate of the Mexican plateau is so even that 
cactus apples, garambuya berries, etc., come along 
without much reference to season, there being 
rarely a time when something of the kind is not 
to be had. 
In spite of all this, however, it used always 
to give me a sort of uncanny feeling to find the 
deer and other animals, fat and contented, mak¬ 
ing their habitat in some sun-scorched range of 
hills so dry that it almost frightened a man to 
camp among them, even though he carried and 
very carefully hoarded a good supply of water 
for his own use. How do they do it? 
Well, the explanation given is the only pos¬ 
sible one, they eat moist food. For be it under¬ 
stood that they do not eat cactus, etc., simply 
for water; it is a principal article of their diet. 
There must be, too, something of gradual adap¬ 
tation. Goats on the range in Mexico, in or¬ 
dinary weather, are taken to Water only about 
twice a week. The deer through many genera¬ 
tions of practice have got to the point where 
they scarcely go at all, though if water is con¬ 
venient and the weather hot they will drink. 
Azetc. 
An interesting article on this subject entitled 
“A Well of the Desert,” appeared in Forest 
and Stream of Dec. 31, 1904. It is as .follows: 
“Those of us who were brought up on the 
literature provided by Mayne Reid, no doubt 
remember that some of his heroes, when traveling 
over the desert, were saved from death by thirst 
by opening the stems or fruit of the cactus and 
drinking the water which they contained. For 
many years this has been regarded as a mere 
traveler’s tale; yet those who live in the desert 
know well that the story is true. Only the 
white man who goes around with his eyes shut 
has been ignorant of this. There is water in 
the desert, and those who dwell there know how 
to find it. 
“Some years ago, in his interesting article en¬ 
titled, ‘The Gulf of Cortez,’ published in one of 
the Boone and Crockett books, Mr. Geo. H. Gould 
described how, on a barren mountain side in 
Lower California, he found the stems of cactus 
with the hard r.ind broken in and the moist 
interior gnawed' away. His Cocopah Indian 
guide told him that this was done by the wild 
sheep, which broke the hard spiny rinds with 
their horns and ate the soft contents. 
“It is well known that animals inhabiting the 
desert often go a long time without water, and 
there are people who maintain that they never 
drink at all. The camel has long been famous 
for the length of time during which he could 
abstain from water, and has been credited with 
carrying around with him an extra supply, on 
which he may draw if ever he really becomes 
thirsty. An extraordinary statement concerning 
this beast is that made by D. W. Carnegie, who 
tells that, while traveling in the desert of South¬ 
western Australia, his nine camels went without 
water for a period of twelve days, at the end of 
this time drinking each about seventeen gallons. 
Again, a little later, two camels traveled for 
thirty-seven days on thirteen gallons of water 
each, distributed in three drinks. 
“But our own animals, such as peccaries, deer, 
various mice and other rodents, appear to get 
along without water, and in a recent paper on 
this topic, Mr. F. V. Coville has brought to¬ 
gether a number of interesting facts on this 
general subject. Some of these rodents do not 
appear to know what water is, certainly as it 
is offered them; but it will be remembered that 
nearly 100 years ago Audubon the naturalist, 
when making experiments to learn whether a 
prairie chicken would drink or not, discovered 
that while the bird would not notice water 
offered to it in a dish, it eagerly sipped from 
the bars of its cage drops of water that had 
been spilt and clung to them. 
“As we have said, the Indians and the animals 
of the desert recognize very well that some of 
the great cactuses which grow in their home 
contain water and in abundance. Chief among 
these are certain plants—locally called bisnaga 
—belonging to the genus Echinocactus, the juice 
of which is sweet and pleasant. The plants stand 
up three or four feet high and 18 or 20 inches 
thick, looking at a distance like tremendously 
stout posts. If the top be sliced off horizontally, 
the white soft flesh of the interior of the plant 
is seen, but water will not flow from it of itself; 
there is merely a moist surface. If, however, a club 
or pestle’ be used to crush this white flesh lying 
within the outer rind, a bowl will be formed in 
the top of the cactus, partly filled with wet 
pulp, and from this pulp water may be squeezed 
back into the bowl. In a case witnessed by 
Mr. Coville, the crushing proceeded until a bowl 
had been made about 8 inches deep, and in this 
bowl were about three quarts of very pleasant 
water. It was slightly salty to the taste, but 
good enough water for any thirsty man. 
“There is another form of bisnaga, approxi¬ 
mately spherical in form, which is said by the 
Indians to furnish a better water than the up¬ 
right one. This, if we recollect aright, is the 
sort described by Mayne Reid in those stories 
of many years ago. 
“This water is commonly drunk by the In¬ 
dians, is used to mix with flour to make bread, 
and is commonly devoted to any camp use. 
“There are other very large cactuses—those, 
for example, known as the saguaro, the pitahaya 
and the sina—which do not provide good drink¬ 
ing water because their juice is very bitter and 
even nauseating; and it is interesting to note 
that these cactuses, so unpleasant to the taste, 
are but slightly protected by spines, while on the 
other hand the' visnaga and their agreeable 
tasting allies possess an almost impenetrable 
armor of hooked and rigid spines.” 
Epidemics in the Burrows. 
It re well known that many species of rodents 
which live in colonies, such as prairie dogs, 
rabbits, spermonhiles, field mice and rats, are 
subject at irregular intervals to microbic diseases 
in the nature of epidemics, which greatly reduce 
their numbers. The Department of Agriculture 
desireS to be informed of the presence of such 
epidemics with a view to isolating and preserving 
the microbes for use in destroying mammals in¬ 
jurious to agriculture. 
H. W. Henshaw, Acting Chief, Biological Sur¬ 
vey, requests information of any epidemic 
diseases among wild mammals, now or at any 
future time. Such diseases are usually indicated 
by the presence of numerous sick or dead 
animals. 
Belonging to the regiment (Fourteenth Ten¬ 
nessee Confederate) was a man who stammered 
in his speech very badly. Late one evening while 
the “boys” were gathered around the camp-fires, 
the stammering soldier saw a squirrel in a tree. 
Pointing his finger at the squirrel, he exclaimed 
excitedly, “L-l-l-oook, b-b-boys, at t-t-that squi- 
squi—g-gone in his hole !” Birdo. 
