Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/508

466, as mice and shrews, and birds, like sparrows, but ordinarily these same creatures drink much oftener than once a day. But this briefly moist condition of the dawn and early morning hours was not of itself sufficient to keep the wide range of animal life in health or comfort, and the result was a migratory movement from the drier uplands to the moister meadows; a noticeable depletion of the fields and overcrowding of the marshes. This was not suddenly brought about, but rather gradual, and would not probably have been noticed except by one daily upon the scene. The parched vegetation had, of course, its effect upon seed-eating birds, but probably a more marked one upon insect life. Certainly the insect-eating birds left their old haunts to a great extent and were found in unusual abundance along the two creeks that divide the meadows into three great tracts; and it was noticeable during the evening that bats and night hawks were more abundant over the meadows than the fields. Mice and hares certainly were unusually scarce in the uplands. Here, it should be remembered, no observations were practicable that gave positive results. No census could be taken of the life in the two localities, and every statement is one of general impressions gained by almost daily visits to the more important points. One unquestionable fact was ascertained: there was an unusual abundance of life of every kind in the lowlands, and a quiet, desolate condition of the fields above, wholly different from what obtains in ordinary summers. As the weeks rolled by, the smaller meadow streams failed entirely, and hundreds of acres of land, usually more or less wet the year through, became as dry, parched, and desert-like as the sandiest field in the higher ground. Aquatic and semi-aquatic plants withered and died. The rose mallow failed to bloom, arrow-leaf wilted, and the pickerel weeds were soon as brown as sedges. This condition necessitated a second migratory movement of many forms of life, but was fatal to others. Such creatures as took refuge in pools found when too late their means of escape cut off and perished. Small minnows, young salamanders, and even aquatic insects gradually succumbed, and their dried remains were found resting upon the parched mud which became quite hard, sustaining an ordinary foot-press without retaining any mark thereof. Lifting the mummified remains from their resting place, there were found impressions of each, distinct in almost every feature. It was instructive as showing how fossils are formed, and further so, in indicating how animals not associated in life become accumulated in small areas. In one such dried-up pool I found a mouse, a star-nosed mole, and remains of many earthworms, as well as fish, batrachians, and insects. Just why the mouse and mole should have remained there and died can only be surmised. But, to return to the uplands: a more striking