194 . NOTES ON A *GREAT VISITATION OF RATS, 
the leaders of a team could not be seen from the waggon. The 
stock were uncommonly fond of and fattened on it. The flowers 
were both yellow and lilac. After a few months the stems 
dried and the plants fell. 
Moreover, immediately after the waters, occasioned by the 
excessive rain, had subsided, the plague of rats increased to an 
extent that would scarcely be credible. They covered the plains 
in every direction ; when riding at night they could be heard 
squeaking everywhere fighting with each other ; they swarmed 
into the huts and gnawed everything they could get at. Flour, 
meat, and leather articles had to be stored in galvanized iron 
rooms or safes, built expressly for the purpose. When camp- 
ing out, every article had to be hung in a tree, and the hobbles, 
made of green hide, have been known to be gnawed off the 
horses feet during the night. Dogs and cats got surfeited with 
these rodents and at last took no notice of them; if a hundred 
were killed round the hut at night there appeared no diminution 
of the number of visitors on the following night; andfor months 
in succession the same slaughter could be kept up. It would be 
impossible to estimate numbers; for hundreds of miles along 
the Flinders and its tributaries traces of these rats were to be seen ; 
the grass looked as if it had been cut down, or flocks of sheep 
had been over it; saplings of white-wood (Atalaya hemiglauca) 
six inches in diameter were bitten through, and the bark of 
other trees gnawed off. Fifty thousand square miles occupied 
by these animals, and one rat to every ten square yards in each 
mile would not represent anything like their numbers. The 
large open plains appeared to be their favourite resort, and, 
strange as it may appear, very seldom were any young ones dis- 
covered, although their nests were occasionally found, showing 
that they bred in the country. 
Towards the end of 1870 they decreased in numbers, and in 
the following year disappeared. Had the rats continued to 
multiply or even maintain their number. the country would 
