RATTING WITHOUT FERRETS 101 



the rat ; when the ferret proceeds to gorge himself 

 on his victim and to lie up. 



Again, it is more difficult to find a lingering ferret 

 in a rat's hole than in a rabbit's burrow; a line- 

 ferret sent in to explore cannot move about in the small 

 rat passages as in the roomy tunnels of rabbits, and so 

 cannot locate the free ferret. To dig for a ferret in a 

 rat's run is always risky ; the diameter is so small 

 that the spade may cut through without any warning, 

 and also cut through the ferret. When the spade 

 breaks through the crown of a rabbit's hole, on the 

 floor of which is the ferret, the man with the spade 

 naturally eases his pressure. But the ferret fills the 

 rat-hole to the roof. 



There is still another danger in ratting with ferrets ; 

 the dogs, unless very well trained, may bring about 

 a tragedy. Even when a dog is ferret-proof the 

 ferret may plunge teeth into the dog, who naturally 

 retaliates. On all these accounts the keeper may 

 prefer to go ratting with an iron bar in place of a 

 ferret. 



By using an iron bar instead of ferrets for bolting 

 rats, all kinds of difficulties and delays are prevented ; 

 and the keeper is free to go home at any time with- 

 out having to wait for loitering allies. To strike an 

 iron bar into a rat's hole is to strike terror into the 

 rat's heart. One might probe a rabbit's burrow 

 with a bar for a month, and no rabbit would bolt 

 indeed, the more one probed the tighter would the 

 rabbit sit. In rabbiting, a bar is used only to find 



