SHIP- AND WIND-BORNE COLONISTS 303 



the rats, and they imdoiibtedly came through human agency. 

 The rats have this distinction, that they were firmly established 

 in the atoll before the original settlement was made by man, 

 some eighty years ago. Exactly how the original rats came is 

 of course unknown, but people had occasionally landed in the 

 atoll previous to 1827, and, judging from the after-history, 

 many unfortunates had been wrecked upon its barrier. When 

 the settlers arrived, they found these rats confined to one 

 island, and this island they named Pulu Tikus, or Rat Island, 

 in consequence. It was upon this island that the original rats 

 landed from the wreck, or Avere brought by man, and there 

 they stayed ; for the channel that separates Pulu Tikus from 

 its neighbour is deep and very swiftly running, A man may 

 swim the channel at all tides, but he will have to make a long 

 course, for the current carries him rapidly down ; and a rat 

 would surely go to sea in any attempt at making the passage. 



After the advent of the settlers, the rats of Pulu Tikus 

 remained the sole representatives of their family in the atoll 

 for very many years. They were not permitted to extend 

 their domain beyond the limits of their own island, for a strict 

 examination was made of all the boats that went between the 

 different islands. They were not exterminated, for the simple 

 reason that the extermination of rats, by any ordinary means, 

 even on so tiny a strip of land, is quite impossible. 



Theoretical authorities on tropical public health are apt 

 to talk somewhat lightly about exterminating two disease- 

 carrying pests — the rat and the mosquito. It is repeatedly 

 stated that wonderful good would come of its entire accom- 

 plishment, as though it were a practical possibility ; — and in a 

 great many cases very wonderful results have been attained. 

 If any one has a fancy that he can exterminate rats or mos- 

 quitoes, he might fittingly try his hand in this atoll, for it is 

 an ideal spot for its attempting. 



Mosquitoes he will never get rid of, for they pass their 

 larval stages quite comfortably in salt water, and though he 

 may render all his fresh water nasty with petroleum, or copper 

 sulphate, or anything else that he chooses^ — he cannot hope to 



