250 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



pulled the trigger. From the manner in which she 

 sprang forward I was quite certain that she was hit ; 

 and reloading, I hastened forward, to find her prostrate 

 at the bottom of the pass and quite dead. The ball 

 being fired from above, had entered her neck just 

 between the shoulder blades, and passing through, 

 came out in the very centre of her chest. 



This was a satisfactory finale to an eventful day, and 

 we now started for home, glad that we could report so 

 important an accession to the larder. 



Before closing the present chapter I shall record an 

 anecdote or two which I have lately heard on good 

 authority with regard to the habits and instincts of 

 rats, and which may not be without interest to the 

 naturalist. 



We all know the saying that rats, with a prescience 

 not possessed by humanity, desert the ship which is 

 leaving port for the voyage on which she will be lost. 

 And a late officer in Her Majesty's Navy once assured 

 me that he had heard of a number not only taking 

 their own departure, but also carrying along with them 

 the body of a defunct companion, which they conveyed 

 over the ship's side, rolled up in a bit of canvas 

 purloined from the stores, and handing the corpse 

 from one to another with a care and regularity worthy 

 of creatures of a higher order. Whether this partakes 

 somewhat of the nature of a sailor's yarn, or whether 

 it be a veritable relation of facts, I leave to others 

 more capable than myself to decide. But the following 

 I can vouch for. 



Between twenty and thirty years ago, the house 

 occupied by my friend, the laird, and which has now 

 made way for a commodious residence, was a row of 

 very old buildings ; and like many other old buildings, 

 these were infested with rats. As an evidence of this, 



