244 THE WORLD'S LUMBER ROOM. 



merited animals, is yet, says Mr. Buckland, a -most useful 

 servant, for wherever man settles \ there, as if by magic, the 

 rat makes his appearance. Thousands of rats lived in the 

 camp before Sebastopol, and they swarm at Aldershot, 

 where the sentries see them at night going to the nearest 

 water to drink, for the rat is a thirsty animal, and soon dies 

 if kept without water. 



The rat clears away every particle of refuse and filth he 

 can get at, and does invaluable service not only in camp 

 but in the sewers adjoining some of the London slaughter- 

 houses, which are often nearly choked with offal and refuse 

 animal-matter thrown into them by the careless butchers. 

 But for the persecuted rats, who live there in swarms and 

 devour every morsel, this putrid mass, if left neglected, 

 would give rise to fearful plagues. 



The rat is the only animal which can thrive and keep a 

 clean coat in the most filthy localities where the air would 

 be fatal to any other creature ; and, in spite of the unclean 

 places he frequents, he is personally very particular about 

 cleanliness, and never eats a morsel of food without cleaning 

 himself; nor does the garbage upon which he feeds poison 

 his teeth, as has been said, or render the wounds he inflicts 

 with them deadly. 



Rats have very sharp teeth, and are so fond of taking a 

 nibble at the tip of an elephant's tusk that much of the ivory 

 imported bears evidence of having been gnawed by them. 

 Indian ivory they will not touch because it is deficient in 

 animal glue, or gelatine, and of the African they taste only 

 the best tusks, and of these only the purest and most 

 delicate portion ; and the turner, well knowing that he may 



