68 RODENTIA 



and an intensifying of its ravages. From inquiries made 

 within the past week, it has been ascertained that the outlook, 

 as the winter approaches, becomes more and more serious. 

 The vermin have multiplied greatly during the summer, and 

 they now swarm in numbers which defy computation. The 

 high-lying farms on the western border of Selkirkshire seem 

 to be suffering most. . . . Throughout the summer, grass 

 and other herbage chiefly were preyed upon. The grassy 

 farms have suffered, and are suffering most. The vermin do 

 not seem to live on the lea grasses or dry hill-sides ; the grassy 

 bogs and white bent are the places where they abound most. 

 Wherever the ground is what the shepherds speak of as ' not 

 bare/ there they swarm in greatest numbers. They nibble 

 and gnaw the long grass close to the ground, and the land is 

 rendered altogether valueless for winter and spring feeding. 

 Hundreds of acres of the best pasture land on many farms 

 have thus for the present been totally destroyed, and whole 

 hill-sides wear a blasted and desolate aspect, the ground being 

 perfectly riddled by their holes and runs. In the autumn 

 months hayricks were infested by the mice in countless 

 numbers, and the hay has in many cases, as one observer 

 expressively says, been minced into perfect chaff. Then the 

 corn-stooks swarmed with them, as many as four or five nests 

 being frequently found in a single sheaf. Now they have 

 found their way to stackyards, barnyards, and outhouses, and 

 are doing vast damage there. Even in gardens they are 

 destroying the roots of plants and flower bulbs. ... To 

 exterminate them seems beyond the province of hope. Burning 

 the ground where the destruction is greatest does no good, 

 says one, they fly to their holes and ere long again appear ; 

 heavy rain does not drown them ; some people, remembering 

 how they disappeared after a similar but not so serious a 

 plague about fifteen years ago, believe that a fall of slushy 



