THE RAT. 229 



of subsistence. It was said that the carcases of thirty-five 

 horses, if left unprotected, would be eaten by these rats in 

 one night, the bones being picked clean. On one occasion, 

 the carcases of three horses were placed in a high walled 

 enclosure, small holes having been made in the walls for the 

 admission of the rats, and subsequently stopped up. Several 

 men armed with torches and sticks, then entered the yard, 

 which was so full of rats that they could strike right and 

 left without aim and yet be sure of destroying them. Two 

 thousand six hundred and fifty rats fell victims to this expe- 

 riment in one night. At the end of a month, the experiment 

 having been several times repeated, sixteen thousand and 

 fifty rats had been killed. The danger accruing from the 

 burrowing of such enormous quantities of rats is by no means 

 slight. 



Invaded by The Story of Bishop Hatto and the invEision 

 Rats. of the "Mausethurm" on the Rhine by rats, is 

 well known if not entirely authentic. Some idea of what it would 

 be to be invaded by rats, may be gathered from Mrs. 

 Bowdich's graphic account of her own painful experiences. 

 "When living in Cape Coast Castle, I used to see the rats 

 come in troops past my door, walking over my black boys 

 as they lay there, and who only turned themselves over to 

 present the other sides of their faces and bodies when the 

 rats returned, and thought it a good joke. The fiercest 

 encounter which I ever had with them was during one of 

 those terrific storms which are more furious between the 

 tropics than elsewhere. I was then, however, rmder the 

 Equator, in a native hut, and heard an exceeding rustling 

 and movement all around me. To my terror I perceived 

 that these proceeded firom a number of rats ruiming up and 

 down the sides of the room in which I was to pass the night, 

 and who shortly began to run over me, they being disturbed 

 by the torrents of rain which were then falling. The only 

 weapon I could find was a shoe, and curling myself into a 



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