240 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



rats do wlion tlicy resort to the pond or river. 

 The steady-going, constant residents of the one 

 l^lace, householders and water-rats, get turned out 

 of the quiet routine of their existence, and either 

 let at remunerative rents tlieir houses for a time, 

 or desert their domiciles, to escape the contami- 

 nation of gamblers, impostors, or cliaracters un- 

 desirable as acquaintances for the rising genera- 

 tion. 



The water-rats, in much the same position, yield 

 up tlieir holes in the banks to the vicious foe, 

 who, if they did not do so, would kill and eat 

 them. In these holes the house-rats, for "the 

 season," breed and live, adopting precisely the 

 habits, in all hut appetite j of their predecessors; 

 and thus, because the superficial observer sees a 

 rat on the mill or duck pond swim after and catch 

 young ducks, he immediately charges the mis- 

 chievous fact against a poor creature who never 

 destroyed anything alive in its life. 



When decoys have to be made u}) by dams to 

 keep back the water, and to throw it into 2)ools 

 or lakes, the water-rats, and the moles also, will 

 do a great deal of damage by 2)erforating the 

 banks beneath the surface of the higher water. 



