1885.] 
The “ Trading- Rat.” 
65: 
characteristics natural to this little merchant, its habit of 
exchanging goods without a ‘ by your leave,’ wise ways, 
and queer tricks seem far more like reason than instinCt.” 
[We need scarcely remark that we do not accept the com- 
mon notion of “ instinCt ” as an antithetical substitute for 
reason.] “ A few incidents which came under my own 
observation will illustrate this characteristic. Some men, 
passing through the country, camped in a deserted cabin, 
and, before wrapping themselves in their blankets for the 
night, they placed their bread for breakfast in a pan near 
the fire. On rising, to their dismay, not a crumb of bread 
was left in the pan, but it was filled with old scraps of 
leather, chips, . bones, mouldy beans, rags, & c. Searching, 
they found, high up on a partly broken shelf, in an old tin 
can, their bread packed away with old bacon-rinds, bones, 
rags, and other trash. 
“ In the house of one of my neighbours these mischiefs 
carried away a lot of Indian meal, and in the meal-box de- 
posited a quantity of bird-shot, which, mixed with the 
remaining meal, caused the housekeeper great dissatisfaction. 
In the same house a trunk was accidentally left open one 
night : in the morning a quantity of rice, bits of dried fruit, 
and some oats, were found mixed with loose coral beads 
and other small trinkets. It was an exercise of patience to 
separate the articles, as may be readily imagined. 
“ With these traders exchange is no robbery, and distance 
small hindrance j they travel from their homes and go from 
bain to house, fiom loft to cellar, and through living-rooms 
(noiseless when acting as porters), with great speed and im- 
partiality. A sheep-herder, returning to his camp from a 
town 30 miles away, brought home a fine new hat ; placing 
the box on his table, he went away for the night. Returning, 
he found the box had been entered, the crown of the hat 
eaten entiiely xound, and the box then filled with wool, 
flannel lags, lemains of food, wheat, and dried fruits. There 
was a sudden forced abandonment of that unsurveyed 
‘ squatter’s claim.’ 
“ Some ranchmen were gone mowing for several days, 
camping away from home. After their return they soon 
learned that their quarters had not been unoccupied durin°- 
their absence. A nest composed of wool and rags filled the 
flo H. r ‘ s ! eve , u P on a shelf : next beside the sieve stood the 
coffee-box ; in it had been left about a pound of good coffee • 
now the box was filled to the top, mixed with the coffee' 
mouldy crusts, bones, and rinds, that had been scattered 
about the place. When I threw it all out,’ said the man, 
