310 THE WILD RABBET. 



Augustus to destroy them. And, not many years 

 ago, they had become so numerous in Basiluzzo, 

 one of the Lipari islands, that, at onetime, Spallan- 

 zani informs us, the people were in dread of fa- 

 mine, from the devastations they had committed 

 among the corn. By importing into the island a 

 quantity of Cats, which were employed like Ferrets, 

 to pursue and kill them in their holes,, they were, at 

 last, brought within due bounds*. 



In many of the uninclosed parts of Great Britain, 

 the Rabbet is, on the contrary, an animal very ad- 

 vantageous to the proprietors of land ; and it is 

 supposed that there are few sandy, or other loose 

 soils, where the ground rises in different places 

 into hills, that can be more profitably employed 

 than as Rabbet warrens. On level ground the ani- 

 mals find it difficult to form their burrows, as the 

 mould is to be all thrown upward to the surface : 

 but against the side of a hill they have not this 

 difficulty to encounter, since the declivity affords 

 a ready fall for the earth. With respect to the 

 value of a well-stocked warren, the following is a 

 curious estimate made by Mr. Marshall. " The 

 hide of a bullock, of some breeds, is not worth 

 more than one twentieth part of the carcass. The 

 skin of a Sheep may, in full wool, be worth from a 

 sixth to a tenth part of its carcass; but the fur of 



* Voyage dans les deux Sicilies, ii. p. 108. 



a Rabbet 



