PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 125 
the plains in every direction; when riding at night they 
eould be heard squeaking everywhere, fighting with each 
other; they swarmed into the huts and gnawed everything 
they could get at. Flour, meat, and leather articles had to 
be stored in galvanised iron rooms or safes, built expressly 
for the purpose. When camping out, every article had 
to be hung in a tree, and the hobbles, made of green hide, 
have been known to be gnawed off the horses’ feet during 
the night.... Ifa hundred were killed round the hut at 
night there appeared no diminution of the number of visi- 
tors on the following night; and for months in succession 
the same slaughter could be kept up. It would be impos- 
sible to estimate numbers; for hundreds of miles along the 
Flinders and its tributaries, traces of these rats were to be 
seen ; the grass looked as if it had been cut down, or flocks 
of sheep had been over it.... Fifty thousand square miles 
occupied by these animals, and one rat to every ten square 
yards in each mile would not represent anything like their 
numbers. The large open plains appeared to be their fa- 
vourite resort, and, strange as it may appear, very seldom 
were any young ones discovered, although their nests were 
occasionally found, showing that they bred in the country. 
Towards the end of 1870 they decreased in numbers, and 
in the following year disappeared.’’ Mr. Palmer states 
that this rat, which appeared to be indigenous to Australia, 
as 1t was known to the blacks, seemed most nearly to ap- 
proach the brown rat (Mus decumanus), and was similar 
to it in its burrowing habits. It was of a greyish-brown 
colour, not much more than six or seven inches long in the 
body, with a short, thick bare tail three inches long; the 
fur was close and short, the body thick and strong, the ears 
short and stiff. The increase of rats was accompanied by 
an ‘‘almost corresponding increase in their natural enemies 
—native dogs, snakes, hawks and owls.’’ 
