162 
THE RAT. 
lias published liis travels, entitled, " Four Years in the 
Pacific," wherein he relates his visit to Juan Fernandez. 
This is the island so celebrated in England as being the 
place whereon Robinson Crusoe is represented to have been 
shipwrecked, and where he first met with his man Friday. 
Here the author met with a family of settlers in the greatest 
poverty and distress, and who doubtless had been led there 
through reading the "Life and Adventures of Robinson 
Crusoe," as depicted by Defoe. The land was very rich and 
fertile, and vegetation spread forth in rank profusion. It 
appears it was only necessary to plant corn in the ground, 
and it would rise up in abundance, so far as the ground was 
concerned. They were living upon a small farm, which was 
allowed to run to waste ; and when the author asked them 
why they did not cultivate the ground, they replied, that 
it was no use, for the rats destroyed all the grain, and 
hence arose their privations. 
That rats do migrate from island to island, and that for 
miles across the sea, there is no doubt ; but how they 
migrate, that is another question. For my own part I can 
easily believe that when a ship is in harbour they in the 
night-time swim in a body from the shore to the vessel, and 
having clambered on board, take their berths without paying 
for their passage ; and that when the ship anchors at another 
station, either at home or abroad, they, under the cover of 
night, swim in a body from the ship to the shore, and then 
walk away without saying either "Good bye" or "Thank 
you." 
It often happens that ships will become so completely 
overrun with them that the owners are compelled, the first 
fair opportunity, to make the vessel as air-tight as possible, 
and burn charcoal and brimstone in the hold, or between 
decks, to suffocate them ; but, in that case, the ship for some 
time after will stink most filthily from the effects of their 
putrid carcasses, though vast numbers may be found dead 
round the charcoal pans or dishes. 
Here I may mention one curious circumstance with regard 
to ship-rats. It has often been matter of surprise that they 
do not sink the vessels by boring holes so as to admit the 
water. It is a well-known fact, that, however they may 
gnaw their way through the interior of the ship, they never 
