100 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. IX, April, 1955 
of our battle with these pests. After half an hour of intense effort killing with clubs 
and dragging away the remains the result of which seemed only to increase our 
embarrassment, I organized our forces thus: I loaded two of our fowling pieces and 
laid out at hand an ample supply of ammunition. Handy stood by to reload the guns 
and the Black was told off to lay a train, as it were, of the slain that would lead away 
from our tent and surroundings. The guns proved effective after ten minutes of rapid 
firing and I was able to spare Handy to assist Cotton Bole in extending the line of 
carrion and gradually move our combined operations further and further away from 
our campsite. When I tell thee that we were furiously engaged in this unexpected 
labor for over an hour, thee will understand perhaps the countless number of rodents 
that infest thy property, and can comprehend how easy it would be for a shipwrecked 
crew less favorably supplied with strength and firearms than we were, to be overcome 
by these animals and finally to be horribly destroyed by them as is supposed to have 
been the case by the finding of the human bones dreadfully dragged about on Huafo 
Island which was similarly infested with these dreadful creatures. When it seemed 
that we had shifted the invading forces from our camp to a spot somewhat more 
than 100 yds. away I took account of stock to find to my considerable added un- 
easiness that allowing for a shooting party each 24 hours of the same proportions 
as this we had just concluded, we should be bare of ammunition by the next day 
but one. Such a situation could not be tolerated and it was plain that if the ship did 
not return within the next 24 hours some plan must be worked out for our protection 
that would be effective without the use of firearms, so that we might hold our ammu- 
nition for an emergency. I sent Cotton Bole back to the tent to prepare breakfast 
and explained my gloomy thoughts to Handy, meantime keeping a concentrated 
watch on the movements of our enemy. During this watch, which lasted half an hour, 
it became evident that as the supply of dead dwindled the living tended to return 
to their more natural and usual avocation of preying on the birds’ nests, became more 
scattered and showed no tendency to return in unusual numbers to the camp. We 
were greatly relieved when we were satisfied of this situation and I became convinced 
that could we, by some well prepared arrangements, keep the camp clear during the 
hours of darkness, we should not have to face again another attack of such terrifying 
proportions, as it was evident from our last night’s experience that our troubles had 
been largely brought about first by the smell of the scraps of meat and fat that re- 
mained after our supper by which the rats were first attracted in our direction and 
second by the smell of blood caused by our slaying them when their numbers became 
alarming in the night. While we were eating our breakfast I resolved on a plan for 
our next night that I felt would give us a chance of some reasonable rest and pro- 
tection. Accordingly, I constituted our company into three watches as on shipboard. 
Handy from 12 noon to 4 p.m., the Black from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., myself from 8 p.m. 
to midnight and so on, until the ship might rescue us from this Desert Island, as it 
had become to me. This arrangement we kept in force for the remainder of our stay 
and found it was most helpful as a means of keeping up our strength against the heat, 
anxiety and generally sapping conditions under which we were existing. I next pre- 
pared a bamboo pole with a crotch at one end. This crotch was constructed by splitting 
one joint and forcing a wedge into the split thereby spreading the two halves to an 
extent that I thought would fit over and hold tight the average rat. We next prepared 
a canvas bag with a placket, which I judged would hold a hundred of these vermin. 
