COUEAGE OF THE EAT. 
107 
he says that whenever they felt exhausted, they left off, and 
allowed themselves a few moments to recover their breath, 
and then set-to again with redoubled fury. In the last 
bout they continued closely engaged for about ten minutes 
with little advantage to either, though the rat was much 
the smallest. After that, the rat began to show symp- 
toms of distress, and at last surrendered through sheer 
exhaustion, when the weasel twisted his body completely 
round that of his victim, and^ seizing him by the throat, 
never left his hold until life was extinct. And theD, as the 
man states, though much punished, he marched off with all 
the importance which victory alone inspires." 
A few years since, as a washerwoman was engaged drying 
clothes on the dock at Dumfries, she accidentally struck her 
heel against an object on the ground, which proved to be a 
large rat. The infuriated animal turned upon the woman, 
and sprung at her throat with the most determined ferocity. 
She defended herself with her hands, and succeeded in knock- 
ing him down each time he attempted to fasten upon her. At 
last, in stepping back, she lost her balance and fell, wdien the 
rat attempted to follow up the advantage, and certainly would 
have done her some serious bodily harm, had she not 
instantly sprang to her feet, and renewed the contest. 
Again and again the little brute made for the throat, and the 
struggle might have continued long enough, had not another 
woman and a boy come to her assistance, when, by a liberal 
supply of thumps and kicks, they managed to lay him 
prostrate. 
Another occurrence, unfortunately attended with circum- 
stances of a melancholy character, took place on the premises 
of a livery-stable keeper, by which a gentleman's coachman 
lost his life. The evidence upon the inquest went to show 
that the deceased, in taking his horses into the stable, met with 
an opposition from theanimals, which was very unusual, as they 
possessed no vicious propensities whatever. The deceased, in 
endeavouring to bring one of the horses up to the trough 
to eat its food, discovered a large rat in the manger, which, 
it appears, fiew at the animals every time they attempted to 
approach, and hence their fright and reluctance to eat. The 
deceased, on making the discovery, endeavoured to kill the 
rat, which sprang over his head on the horse's back, and this 
