Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 169
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TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 169
during May and June, when the
pear-shaped fruit ripens in July;
and in August, the prairie plains
along brushy and hilly cactus re-
gions are literally covered with
the attractive red, dark bluish, or
jet black fruit, intermingled with
other unripe green, light purple,
carmine-red and various other col-
ored cactus-pears-a very fasci-
nating sight to behold! The pear-
shaped fruit seen on the picture
herein, were of light pink color
and( not matured. The jet black
variety of this fruit is eatible.
and the taste is not unpleasant,
whilst the other styles of ripe cac-
ti fruit is less palatable and some
are rcpungnant. The entire ripe
fruit is saturated in its fleshy
tissues with an intensely red col-
oring matter, which stains the
hands a beautiful flesh color; and
the aborigines used such coloring
material to paint their faces and
warring impliments. Carloads of
this fruit could be gathered in a
short time along the cactus jun-
gles, and perhaps converted into
some staining product for various
commercial purposes.
The fruit has often been eaten
by persons lost in the wilderness
and thus sustained life; and the
cactus leaves serve the rats and
other animals as food during
droughty season, and often large
aeras of gnawed off cactus-leaves
can be seen all along the prairie
cactus plains.
rThese prairie rats, though most-
ly ground animals, are great tree
climbers, and I recollect a little
hunting episode at the Leona hills
some years ago, when camping out
at night with my friend A, Hau-
bold, under a huge oak tree and
close to a large pasture filled with
cactus jungles inside and along the
lane, close to some large watertanks. It was a fine bright moon-
light night, and toward morning
just before sunrise, when my
friend suddenly grabbed his close
by, bb Recmington rifle and ex-
claimed in a whisper: "look at
that big rat above us, peeping
outside a hole in the upper stem
of the oak"-and-"bang" it
wriggled and tumbled outside the
hole to the ground, near our feet.
A short while after this another
rat was seen running up that
same oak tree stem-as fast as
any squirrel ever ran, and it also,
after a little while, peeping out of
the hole, was killed.
In years gone by one hardly
wouil i .:ve dared to enter such
jun1eLes of cactus as now exist
and as seen surrounding the pic-
ture herein. It is a fact, they
teemed in those days with the
deadly rattlesnake and poisonous
prairie spiders; but, with the ex-
termination of late years of the
reptile pest and the cultivation
of vast aries of formerly impas-
sable brush land, it is compara-
l i' ely safe to walk all along the
densest thickets of such cactus
jungles; however, of course, it is
always better to be on the safe
side and on the lookout of these.
Many miles of such old cactus
jungles and rat nests have now
been cleared around the beautiful
Leona valley and hills, and con-
verted into blooming irrigated
fields: arid the time may not be
far off when such cactus jungles
with rat nests will exist in mem-
ory only of an interesting by-gone
age of the prairie plains around
San Antonio. Some of our pres-
ent finest suburban villas and
residential districts were once
nothing but mesquite and cactus
jungles--from East End to the
Government and Tobin Hills-up
to and beyond Prospect Hill and
beyond the vales and hills of the
Leona and Medina regions.
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Menger, R. Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses, book, 1913; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143558/m1/173/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.