Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1900 — PRAIRIE DOGS' WELLS. [ARTICLE]

PRAIRIE DOGS' WELLS.

Howthe Frisky Denizen* Go to the Water Level for Their Drink. “The most Interesting thing I have seen in many a day,” said Harvey Geer, of Lamont, Cal,, a few days ago, “was a prairie dog well. Did you ever see one? It isn’t often that a chance occurs to explore the homes and haunts of these expeditious little inhabitants of the plains. A few miles from my town a large force of men have been at work this summer making a deep cut for a short railroad up into the mines. A friend of mine is in charge of the job, and I went out a week ago to see him and the work that had been done. The ffrst thing that attracted my attention when I got there was the fact that the cut was being made through an old alfalfa field, and the roots fringed the sides of the cut and hung down fifteen t 6 eighteen feet. Up at the surface of the ground were the stubbed green plants, and reaching down deep Into the earth were the fat, business-like roots, getting their living far below where ordinary plants forage for subsistence. “But the most remarkable thing was the prairie dog wells that had been dug into. The cut went through a dog village, and being a deep one—some forty feet-it went below the town. There has always been a discussion about where the prairie dog gets his drink. Some say he goes eternally dry and does not know what it is to have an elegant thirst on him. Usually their towns are miles from any stream and in an arid country, where there Is no surface water at any time sufficient for the needs of an animal requiring drink. The overland travelers back in the days of pioneering used to find the dog towns out on the prairie scores of miles from the streams. There was no dew, the air was as dry as a bone, the buffalo grass would be parched brown, and there would be absolutely nothing to quench thirst. I remember a discussion begun thirty years ago in the American Naturalist by Dr. Sternberg, now surgeon general, on the subject, and he argued in favor of the well theory. But there near Lamont is ocular proof of the well theory. The nest boles of the dogs were five or six feet deep, but four or five holes went straight down as deep as the excavation had been made and evidently on into the water-carrying sand beneath. These holes appeared to be used by the whole colony commonly, and were a little larger than the holes used for their homes.”—Washington Star.