Some persons profess to think that the Rodents called Rats are beautiful
animals; and I presume that, prejudice apart, the sleek skin, the sharp
head, the long, slender tail, and the keen look of their bright black
eyes, ought to be attractions; but those who have been annoyed with
these animals as I have been, can scarcely regard them with anything but
dislike. Overspreading the whole world as they do, it is no wonder,
where they are not vigorously checked, and where food is abundant, their
numbers should amount to something frightful. On a visit to Sierra
Leone, I was all day at the Government House, and going to an upper
room to make my toilette, I heard a pattering of little feet close to
me, and turning my head I saw between the floor and the shrunken door of
the next apartment, a whole army of rats on a peregrination, and giving
such an idea of number, that, uninitiated as I then was (it being on my
first journey to Africa), I was perfectly appalled, and most thankful
that I returned that night to sleep in my safer cabin on board ship.
This, however, was but the beginning; and, in the next vessel which I
entered, they were so numerous, that the next time she returned to port,
she was sunk for a time, as the only means of getting rid of them.
Between these creatures and the cockroaches, I thought my poor child and
myself must be devoured.
There is a facility given to the human mind to accommodate itself to all
circumstances, for which perhaps we are not sufficiently thankful; and
it never was more strongly manifested than in my own case, for both fear
and apprehension vanished with habit, and I became fearless of those
animated creatures which at first seemed to be the bane of my existence.
When living in Cape Coast Castle, I used to see the rats come in troops
past my door, walking over my black boys as they lay there, and who only
turned themselves over to present the other sides of their faces and
bodies, when the rats returned--and thought it a good joke. The
fiercest encounter which I ever had with them was during one of those
terrific storms, which are more furious between the tropics than
elsewhere. I was then, however, under the Equator, in a native hut, and
heard an exceeding rustling and movement all around me. To my terror, I
perceived that these proceeded from a number of rats running up and down
the sides of the room in which I was to pass the night, and who shortly
began to run over me; they being disturbed by the torrents of rain which
were then falling. The only weapon I could find was a shoe, and curling
myself into a large armchair, taken out of a French vessel, and covered
with blue satin damask, I sat prepared for my enemies, whom I dreaded
much more than the lightning, which was flashing across the iron bars
laid upon the floor. I felt that the silk of my place of refuge was some
sort of protection against this; but my own arm could alone save me from
my four-footed foes. Presently my husband came in, and saluted me with a
shout of laughter, which, however, abated when he saw my antagonists.
The storm lulled for a while, and the rats retreated: we then crept
within the curtains of bamboo cloth, which encircled a rude imitation of
a four-post bedstead, but I kept possession of my shoe. Weary with
watching, I closed my eyes, but was awakened by a tremendous flash of
lightning, immediately followed by awful thunder and a tumultuous rush
of rats. Some of them scrambled up the outside of the curtains; but
arms in hand I sat up, and directed by the noise, I hurled the invaders
to the ground, till at length resistance, and the passing away of the
storm allowed me to sleep in peace.
These were the brown rats which infest every part of the world, but very
much increased in size by their residence in a hot climate.
Besides these brown rats, a bush rat, as it is called, infests the
forests, and is about as large as a young pig. When I first saw this,
and felt myself surrounded as it were, by familiar animals increased to
such magnitude, by multitudes previously unknown to me, and others of
which I had only heard, and yet none of us were devoured, I could not
but feel with tenfold depth the Creator's command, that man should have
the dominion over them all. His own strength alone could never enable
him to walk among them unharmed.
The principal characters which distinguish the rat remain in all
countries, but there are several species. The black rat is that which
first inhabited this island; but it has been nearly driven out by the
brown, which is, without any foundation, termed the Norway rat. It came
from India, Persia, etc., and is said to have appeared in Europe after a
great earthquake in 1727. All are so eminently carnivorous, that they do
not make the least ceremony of devouring each other in times of
scarcity; so that on one occasion, already spoken of, when I and my
companions stood a chance of being starved ourselves, we felt sure that
the violent screams and struggles we heard going on among the rats
behind the planks, arose from the meals which the strong were making
upon their more feeble brethren.
Rats are nocturnal in their habits, and like to live in subterranean, or
mysterious abodes. They are found in islands lying in the midst of the
ocean, till the moment of their discovery to us, supposed not to have
been visited by man, and yet the question still remains unsettled,
whether the differences which exist in rats were caused by locality, or
whether they were so from the beginning. There is now no known spot free
from the Norway rat, and the greater the number, of course the more
impudent they become. In Ceylon, I am told, where they are innumerable,
they perch on the top of a chair, or screen, and sit there till
something is thrown at them, at which they slowly retreat. A noise is
heard in the verandah close by you, and you see a party of rats,
disputing with a dog for the possession of some object. A traveller in
Ceylon saw his dogs set upon a rat, and making them relinquish it, he
took it up by the tail, the dogs leaping after it the whole time; he
carried it into his dining-room, to examine it there by the light of the
lamp, during the whole of which period it remained as if it were dead;
limbs hanging, and not a muscle moving. After five minutes he threw it
among the dogs, who were still in a state of great excitement; and to
the astonishment of all present, it suddenly jumped upon its legs, and
ran away so fast that it baffled all its pursuers.
One evening, when at Bathurst, St. Mary's, I was sitting at work in an
upper room, and in the midst of the stillness, heard somewhat breathing
close to me. There was no other person in the chamber except my child,
who was asleep in bed. Although startled, I did not move, but casting my
eyes round I saw a huge rat, sitting upon the table at my elbow,
watching every movement of my fingers. I could scarcely help laughing at
his cool impudence, and suppose I had been too much absorbed by thought,
or employment, to notice his approach. I gradually laid down my work,
and slipping quietly out of the room, as if I had not perceived him,
called the servants. It was supposed that there were nests of rats in
the chimney; for that Government House had been wisely provided with the
possibility of having fires in the rooms during the rainy season; and
the hunt began. I jumped on to the bed, not only to be out of the way,
but to keep the rats from the place where my child was. Two of the men,
furnished with sticks, routed the enemy from their hiding-places, and
four others squatted at the corners of the room, holding a cloth spread
between their hands. They said it was most likely the rats would run
round the walls, and they should therefore catch them in the open cloth.
The event proved them to be right; the frightened animals rushed to
them, were immediately enclosed, and their necks were wrung in a moment.
After the hunt was ended, they were thrown over the verandah into the
garden, to the number of at least fifty. In the morning, however, they
were all gone, but the footmarks of the Genet cats told how they had
been removed. Some squeaks the next day in the chimney betrayed the
presence of some very young ones, and a fire of damp grass being
lighted, their destruction was completed by suffocation. This was
perhaps cruel, but it was necessary in self-defence; and I shuddered to
think of how I and my daughter might, in our sleep, have been attacked
by these animals. It is not to be wondered at, when surrounded by
myriads of obnoxious animals, how any tender feelings towards that part
of creation become blunted. At the moment of which I speak, valuable
books, dried plants, papers containing the data of scientific
observations, concerning the survey of the river Gambia to a
considerable distance, were destroyed during the illness of the
observer, by rats and insects.
[Illustration: LEADING THE BLIND RAT.--Page 261.]
One afternoon, the commandant of Bathurst was quietly reading, when he
heard a violent squeaking and hissing in the room below him, which was
even with the ground, and contained stores. He took the key, and
followed by his servants armed with sticks, went to ascertain the cause.
On opening the door they beheld a rat and a venomous serpent engaged in
mortal combat. Nothing could be more beautiful than the action of both
animals; the rat had retreated for a moment, and stood with flashing
eyes; the head of the serpent was reared to receive a fresh attack;
again and again they closed and separated, but the reptile, although
much bitten, gained the victory; the rat fell, foamed at the mouth,
swelled to a great size, and died in a very few minutes. The serpent
glided away, but was afterwards discovered in her nest with several
young ones, in a crack of the store-room wall, close to a staircase,
which we were in the habit of descending daily, and where, in fact, I
had often seen the serpents' heads peeping out, and had waited till they
were withdrawn.
Of the brown rat Mr. Jesse tells the following story:--"The Rev. Mr.
Ferryman, walking out in some meadows one evening, observed a great
number of rats in the act of migrating from one place to another, which
it is known, they are in the habit of doing occasionally. He stood
perfectly still, and the whole assemblage passed close to him. His
astonishment, however, was great, when he saw an old blind rat, which
held a piece of stick at one end in its mouth, while another rat had
hold of the other end of it, and thus conducted his blind companion."
The amount of destructive force possessed by rats, cannot be better
exemplified than in the report given to the French Government, relating
to the removal of the horse slaughter-houses, situated at Montfaucon, to
a greater distance from Paris; one great objection being the disastrous
consequences which might accrue to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood,
if these voracious creatures were suddenly deprived of their usual
sustenance. It is well known, that the mischief which they occasion is
not confined to what they eat; but they undermine houses, burrow through
dams, destroy drains, and commit incalculable havoc, in every place and
in every thing.
The report states, that the carcases of horses killed one day, and
amounting to thirty-five, would be found the next morning with the bones
picked clean. A person of the name of Dusaussois, belonging to the
establishment, made this experiment. A part of his yard was enclosed by
solid walls, at the foot of which, several holes were made for the
entrance and exit of the rats. Into this enclosure he put the bodies of
three horses, and in the middle of the night he stopped up all the holes
as quietly as he could; he then summoned several of his workmen, and
each, armed with a torch and a stick, entered the yard, and carefully
closed the door. They then commenced a general massacre; in doing
which, it was not necessary to take aim, for wherever the blow fell, it
was sure to knock over a rat, none being allowed to escape by climbing
over the walls. This experiment was repeated at intervals of a few days,
and at the end of a month, 16,050 rats had been destroyed. In one night
they killed 2,650; and yet this cannot give an entirely adequate idea of
their number, for the yard in question did not cover more than a
twentieth part of the space allotted to killing horses. The rats in this
place have made burrows for themselves, like catacombs; and so great is
their number, that they have not found room close by the
slaughter-houses. They have gone farther; and the paths to and from
their dwellings may be traced across the neighbouring fields.
The Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, are greatly infested by
rats; but they are too cunning to stay there during the day time, when
they might be more easily caught; so they in the morning cross the canal
to the opposite shore, and return in the evening to commit their
depredations.
The Water-rats, or Voles, eat fishes, frogs, and toads, besides other
food, and do infinite mischief to banks and dams, which they undermine.
Their smell is so acute, that they will not approach a trap over which a
hand has been passed; and they are particularly abundant in all places
where herrings are cured, leaving them when the season is over. The
thing of all others which attracts rats of all kinds, is a piece of
roast beef; of which they are so fond, that they have been known to kill
a companion who has eaten some, that they might devour the contents of
his stomach.
Dr. Carpenter was told by a trustworthy eyewitness, that she saw a
number of rats safely convey some eggs down a flight of stairs, from a
store room, to their own dwellings. They stationed themselves on each
stair, and each egg, held in the fore paws, was handed from one rat to
another the whole way. The rats who dipped their tails into a jar of
treacle, into which they could not dip their paws, and suffered their
companions to lick them afterwards, is a well known story.
Rats have often attacked children who have been left in a room by
themselves; and infants have even lost their lives from the blood which
their bites have caused to flow.
The following instance of sagacity deserves to be recorded. "During the
great flood of the 4th of September, 1829, when the river Tyne was at it
height, a number of people were assembled on its margin. A swan appeared
with a black spot upon its plumage, which on its nearer approach proved
to be a live rat. It is probable, that the latter had been borne into
the water by some object, and observing the swan, had taken refuge on
its back for safety. As soon as the swan reached the land, the rat
leaped off and ran away."
Two ladies, friends of a near relative of my own, from whom I received
an account of the circumstance, were walking in Regent-street, and were
accosted by a man who requested them to buy a beautiful little dog,
covered with long, white hair, which he carried in his arms. Such things
are not uncommon in that part of London, and the ladies passed on
without heeding him. He followed, and repeated his entreaties, stating,
that as it was the last he had to sell, they should have it at a
reasonable price. They looked at the animal; it was really an exquisite
little creature, and they were at last persuaded. The man took it home
for them, received his money, and left the dog in the arms of one of the
ladies. A short time elapsed, and the dog, which had been very quiet, in
spite of a restless, bright eye, began to show symptoms of uneasiness,
and as he ran about the room, exhibited some unusual movements, which
rather alarmed the fair purchasers. At last, to their great dismay, the
new dog ran squeaking up one of the window curtains, so that when the
gentleman of the house returned home a few minutes after, he found the
ladies in consternation, and right glad to have his assistance. He
vigorously seized the animal, took out his penknife, cut off its
covering, and displayed a large rat to their astonished eyes, and, of
course to its own destruction.