Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/196



by thousands. This wholesale destruction of the snakes disturbed the balance of nature, and ere long an army of frogs issued from Lake Ewauna and marched toward the Upper Klamath Lake in such numbers that one could not walk near the river without treading on them. The whole- HILLOCK OF HABMLESS SNAKES sale destruction of snakes did not occur again, though some people continued to kill them, and the annual frog invasion gradually diminished as domestic fowls^ became numerous along the river and around the margin of Lake Ewauna. Water snakes are not now numerous, neither are frogs, and it is thought that the birds, tame and wild, have taken a leading part in restoring the natural equilibrium between the serpents and amphibians.—Captain O. C. Applegate.

Lack of Postal Facilities in Early Times. One of the

most trying hardships endured by the settlers in the Oregon iWild birds, too, assisted in reducing tbie excessive number of young frogs. Shooting at duclcs and other water fowls off the bridge that spans Klamath Kiver in the very heart of the town of Klamath Falls, was a common practice in early times.—O. C. A.