APPENDIX. 



HOW TO MAKE A RAT TRAP. 



page 195 I promised to describe a rat trap. It may be 

 called a rat exterminator, as it not only clears them but 

 keeps them clear. Build four walls of stone, brick, or concrete, 

 so as to make a convenient room in which to store the fish food, 

 meat, mussels, etc. Put a coping on the top of the wall so that 

 rats cannot get over it. It may be covered by a roof or not as 

 may be convenient. Concrete the floor. Cover the bottom of 

 the door with sheet iron, and leave a hole in it, or anywhere else 

 where the rats can conveniently enter. Now fit an iron plate to 

 slide in a groove so as to block this hole at will, and attach a wire 

 to communicate with some convenient point, say the keeper's 

 house. Every night let him drop the iron plate and go to bed. 

 The rats will be quite safe till morning. They should have a 

 bundle of straw to hide in, and a terrier will make short work of 

 them as they are turned out. I have known fifty rats taken in 

 one night in such a trap, and it is always effective. 



