214 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



cannot be better exemplified than in the report given to 

 the French Government relating to the removal of the 

 horse slaughter-houses, situated at Montfaucon, to a 

 greater distance from Paris ; one great objection being 

 the disastrous consequences which might accrue to the 

 inhabitants of the neighbourhood, if these voracious 

 creatures were suddenly deprived of their usual suste- 

 nance. It is well known that the mischief which they 

 occasion is not confined to what they eat ; but they 

 undermine houses, burrow through dams, destroy drains, 

 and commit incalculable havoc in every place, and in 

 every thing. 



The report states that the carcases of horses killed 

 one day, and amounting to thirty-five, would be found 

 the next morning with the bones picked clean. A person 

 of the name of Dusaussois, belonging to the establish- 

 ment, made this experiment. A part of his yard was 

 enclosed by solid walls, at the foot of which several 

 holes were made for the entrance and exit of the rats. 

 Into this enclosure he put the bodies of three horses, 

 and in the middle of the night he stopped up all the 

 holes as quietly as he could. He then summoned several 

 of his workmen, and each, armed with a torch and a 

 stick, entered the yard, and carefully closed the door. 

 They then commenced a general massacre, in doing 

 which it was not necessary to take aim, for wherever 

 the blow fell it was sure to knock over a rat, none being 

 allowed to escape by climbing over the walls. This 

 experiment was repeated at intervals of a few days, and 

 at the end of a month 16,050 rats had been destroyed. 

 In one night they killed 2650. And yet this cannot 

 give an entirely adequate idea of their number, for the 

 yard in question did uot cover more than a twentieth 



