THE 1IOI7SI;. 



and serpents, and other reptile creatures went out of the same 

 in the presence of the inhabitants, every one assembling to his 

 own rank and company ; whereat the people wondered mnch, 

 for they could not conceive any true cause of their departure, 

 and no marvail ; for God, which had appointed to take vun- 

 geance on them for their wickedness, did not give them so 

 much knowledge, nor make them so wise as the beasts to avoid 

 his judgement and their own destruction ; and, therefore, 

 mark what followed. For these beasts were no sooner out of 

 the city but suddenly in the night time came such a lament- 

 able earthquake and strong tempest, that all the houses did 

 not only fall down and not one of them stood upright to the 

 slaughter of many women and children contained in them, but 

 lest any of them should escape the strokes of the timber and 

 housetops, God sent also a great flood of waters by reason 

 of the tempestuous wind, which drove the waters out of the sea 

 upon the town, that swept tibem all away, leaving no more 

 behind than naked and bare significations of former buildings. 

 And not only the city and citizens perished, but also there were 

 ten ships of the Lacedemonians in their port all drowned at 

 that instant." 



Jesse relates that soon after the completion of the new plan- 

 tation, made by order of Government in Dean Forest, Glouces- 

 tershire, the place was suddenly besieged by such immense 

 armies of long and short-tailed mice as to threaten the speedy 

 destruction of the whole of the young plants. Vast numbers, 

 accoraing to the above-mentioned naturalist, of the young trees 

 were killed, the mice having eaten through the roots of five- 

 year oaks and chestnuts generally just below the surface of the 

 ground. Hollies, also, which were five and six feet high, were 

 barked round the bottom ; and, in some instances, the mice 

 had got up the tree, and were seen feeding on the bark of the 

 upper branches. In the report made to Government on the 

 subject, it appeared that the roots had been eaten through 

 wherever they obstructed the run Df the mice ; but that the 

 bark of the trees constituted their food was ascertained by con- 

 fining a number of the mice in cages and supplying them with 

 the fresh roots and bark of trees, when it was found that they 

 fed greedily on the latter and left tha former untouched. Va- 

 rious plans were devised for their destruction; traps were set, 

 poison laid, and cats turned out, but nothing seemed to lessen 

 their number. It was at last suggested that if holes were dug 

 into which the mice might be enticed, their destruction might 



