250 
THE RAT. 
the baiting and placing of your trap are complete. The 
meal absorbs the perspiration, and the oil imparts to the 
hands a most delightful and delicate perfume, which, so far 
from being offensive, is most grateful and enticing to the 
olfactory nerves of rats. 
I shall here observe that there are a variety of devices, or 
rather traps, all of which doubtless are good, so far as they 
will hold a rat when he is inside ; but how to get him there 
is the matter for consideration. Here, then, we shall find 
the art of managing and baiting traps to be a science quite 
as necessary as the traps themselves. 
In addioion, the following may be considered as an excel- 
lent mixture for drawing rats. 
Take half an ounce of the chemical oil of lavender, a 
quarter of on ounce of the oil ot rhodium, and one teaspoon- 
ful of the oil of rats; put them into a small bottle, and 
well shake them before using. Still I think either of the 
oils used separately is quite equal to mixing them. 
And now, in conclusion, I shall append to this chapter 
some useful and practical information derived from Whist- 
ling Joe, the rat-catcher," of whom some ample notices have 
been already given in Chapter XYIII. of the first Part of 
the volume. 
" To make assurance doubly sure," says Joe, ^^I had a three- 
jointed fishing-rod, at the top of which I fastened about a 
yard of string with a herring tied by the tail. About two 
feet from that, I tied a calf's tail scented with the oil of 
anise seed. Two feet from that again I tied an old 
rag scented with the oil of caraway ; and then, to pre- 
vent their scenting me, I sprea^d a few drops of the 
oil of rats on the soles of my boots ; but as soon as I 
arrived at the squire's, I threw the trails into the rick- 
yard for them to eat ; and then, taking off" my boots, 
ran for some distance in my stocking feet to break the 
track. But in all other cases (for instance, to draw them 
from one part of the house to another, or from their holes to 
the trap, or if I found any holes in a barn, &c., that led into 
orchards, fields, or what not), I trailed the herring round 
the premises to the hole or holes where the traps were laid, 
and mostly baited with the same. This plan I have found 
most successful; but I never failed to cover the traps loosely 
