VIII. 2 



STOWAWAYS ON SHIPS 



THAT we have set our habitations in an island implies 

 that our introduced animals have all been sea-borne, except 

 such as entered the country with Neolithic man, while yet 

 the English Channel was a dry valley, and the North Sea 

 a marshy plain ; and since the unforeseen importations have 

 all made the voyage in secret and in hiding, it follows that 

 all might be regarded as stowaways. I reserve this section, 

 however, for a few free-lances, which have sought shelter 

 on ships as it were on their own account, having no close 

 or essential association with any particular cargo. The 

 more restricted travellers I shall consider later, in relation 

 to the materials in the company of which they reached us in 

 concealment. 



THE BLACK OR SHIP RAT 



Rare thoygh this interesting rodent is nowadays in 

 Britain, it was no unsuccessful stowaway in the days of its 

 prosperity, for its lightness and skill in climbing make it out- 

 standingly the "Ship Rat." The place of origin of the Black 

 Rat (Mus (Epimys) rattus] was probably in southern Asia 

 whence the rodents spread through Arabia, northern Africa 

 and southern Europe. At what period it reached Britain 

 is uncertain, but Messrs Barrett- Hamilton and Hinton con- 

 sider that its apparent absence in Europe in the eleventh 

 and twelfth centuries, and its firm establishment in western 

 Europe shortly afterwards, indicate that it must have been 

 brought to our shores with the navies of the Crusaders on 

 their return from the Holy Land a direct, if undesirable 

 tribute to our predominance on the seas, for it did not appear 

 in Germany till a much later date. 



In any case it was sufficiently common in England in 

 the fourteenth century to be a pest demanding stringent 

 measures, witness Chaucer's comment : 



And forth he goth, no lenger wold he tary, 

 Into the toun unto a Pothecary, 

 And praied him that he him wolde sell 

 Som poison that he might his ratouns quell. 



