080 THE WORLD'S WONDEKS. 



moss' wall between our sanctum and the forecastle, we have built 

 up a rude barrier of our iron sheathing to prevent these abomi- 

 nable rats from gnawing through. It is all in vain. They are 

 everywhere already, under the stove, in the steward's lockers, in 

 our cushions, about our beds. If I was asked what, after dark- 

 ness and cold and scurvy, are the three besetting curses of our 

 Arctic sojourn, I should say, Rats, Rats, Rats. A mother-rat 

 bit my finger to the bone, as I was intruding my hand into a bear- 

 skin mitten which she had chosen as a homestead for her little 

 family. I withdrew it of course with instinctive courtesy ; but 

 among them they carried off the mitten before I could suck the 

 finger. 



"Last week, I sent down the most intelligent dog of our 

 whole pack to bivouac in their citadel forward : I thought she 

 might at least be able to defend herself against them, for she 

 had distinguished herself in the bear-hunt. She slept very well 

 for a couple of hours on a bed she had chosen for herself on the 

 top of some iron spikes. But the rats could not or would not 

 forego the horny skin about her paws ; and they gnawed her feet 

 and nails so ferociously that we drew her up yelping and van- 

 quished." 



Kane next fell to eating the rats, which he affirms made a most 

 palatable food, and to this rat diet he attributed his comparative 

 immunity from scurvy. He says : " I had only one competitor 

 in the dispensation of this entremet, or rather one companion ; 

 for there was an abundance for both. It was a fox : we caught 

 and domesticated him late in the winter; but the scantiness of 

 our resources, and of course his own, soon instructed him in all 

 the antipathies of a terrier. He had only one fault as a rat- 

 catcher ; he would never catch a second till he had eaten the 

 first." 



ARCTIC HARES. 



ONE of the most beautiful animals in the Polar regions is the 

 Arctic hare. In size it is about equal to our jack-rabbit, but its 

 coat is a beautiful clear white, while the ears are tipped with 

 black. They are numerous and distributed over a great extent 



