60 
THE RAT. 
it. He used to lie for exhibition on a crimson cushion^ 
placed upon the table in the bar-joarlour, with mould candles 
on either side, so that the customers and the curious could 
see him from the front of the bar. J ust above where he lay 
there stood a shelf; and upon this shelf, the wife of the 
owner of the dog, on one occasion placed a paper bag con- 
taining four pounds of lump-sugar. In a day or two there 
was a call for sugar ; away she ran to reach down the 
four pounds ; when, to her utter astonishment, the bag was 
empty. She, however, soon discovered the cause ; a rat had 
drilled a hole through the wainscoting just behind the bag, 
and thus carried away every lump of the sugar. This cer- 
tainly was a theft of great daring on the part of Master 
Kat, considering it was perpetrated within a yard of the 
notorious Tiny, the great enemy and destroyer of the rat 
tribe. 
Now that we have seen their liking for sugar in its most 
refined state, let us see what relish they have for saccha- 
rine, or, more plainly speaking, sugar in its rawest state. 
In the Natural History of British and Foreign Quad- 
rupeds," the author tells us that a gentleman had an 
estate in Jamaica much infested with the native rat, which 
I have been informed is a very pretty little animal, but to 
which he had a great dislike ; and, as the author says, he 
imported, at great cost and trouble, a large and strong 
species to exterminate them. The rats he imported were, 
I suppose, our common brown rats, as I know of no others 
that would have answered his purpose so effectually, or 
carried matters to the extent which it appears they have 
done. 
We are told that these rats went far beyond his expecta- 
tions or wishes ; for, after disposing of the native rats, 
they extended their hostility to the cats, and killed them 
also ; and thus got rid of two enemies at once. 
In no country is there a creature so destructive of pro- 
perty as the rat is in Jamaica — their ravages are inconceiv- 
able. One year with another, it is calculated that they 
destroy at least a twentieth part of the sugar-canes through- 
out the island ; but this is not all — they prey upon the 
Indian corn, and on all the fruits within their reach, as also 
roots of various kinds, and indeed anytliing that is digest- 
