65 Craiginillar and its Environs. 



strugglint^ up the furrow of a ploughed field, the 

 hounds "from scent to view" speedily terminated 

 the chase. 



Rats are exceptionally numerous in the environs 

 of Craigmillar, and, from the revolution which has 

 taken place in their haunts and habits by burrowing 

 out in the fields, and the consequent loss to the 

 farmer, they are now regarded as a modern plague. 

 On the Craigmillar irrigation-farm, which lies between 

 the castle and the city, rats are found in great 

 numbers, living on the garbage which comes down the 

 sewers, thus acting the part of the " scavengers of 

 nature." The sewage is turned on to overflow a part 

 of the meadow every day, three weeks being required 

 to irrigate the entire area. With all their shrewdness 

 and foresight, rats do not seem to anticipate the 

 periodical inundation of the meadow, as they burrow, 

 and sometimes breed, on the banks of the runnels. 

 Last summer, while the sewage was being turned 

 on from one part to another, we watched it first 

 coming down the main carrier, then branching into, 

 and commencing to trickle slowly down, the smaller 



