THE RATS. 
119 
compound of vapors,—brimstone, burnt leather, and 
arsenic, — and spent a cold night in a deck-bivouac 
to give the experiment fair play. But they survived 
the fumigation. We now determined to dose them 
with carbonic acid gas. Dr. Hayes burnt a quantity 
of charcoal; and we shut down the hatches, after 
pasting up every fissure that communicated aft and 
starting three stoves on the skin of the forepeak. 
“As the gas was generated with extreme rapidity in 
the confined area below, great caution had to be exer¬ 
cised. Our French cook, good Pierre Schubert,—who 
to a considerable share of bull-headed intrepidity unites 
a commendable portion of professional zeal,—stole be¬ 
low, without my knowledge or consent, to season a 
soup. Morton fortunately saw him staggering in the 
dark; and, reaching him with great difficulty as he 
fell, both were hauled up in the end,—Morton, his 
strength almost gone, the cook perfectly insensible. 
“The next disaster was of a graver sort. I record 
it with emotions of mingled awe and thankfulness. 
We have narrowly escaped being burnt out of house 
and home. I had given orders that the fires, lit under 
my own eye, should be regularly inspected; but I 
learned that Pierre’s misadventure had made the 
watch pretermit for a time opening the hatches. As 
I lowered a lantern, which was extinguished instantly, 
a suspicious odor reached me, as of burning wood. I 
descended at once. Reaching the deck of the fore¬ 
castle, my first glance toward the fires showed me that 
.all was safe there; and, though the quantity of smoke 
