212 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



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 this hunt was 

 ended, they were thrown over the verandah into the 

 garden, to the number of at least fifty. In the morn- 

 ing, however, they were all gone, but the footmarks of 

 the Gener cats told how they had been removed. Some 

 squeaks the next day in the chimney betrayed the pre- 

 sence 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 neces- 

 sary 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 feeling towards that part of creation 

 became 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. 



