THE RAT. 229

of subsistence. It was said that the carcases of thirty-five
horses, if left unprotected, would be eaten by these rats in
one night, the bones being picked clean. On one occasion,
the carcases of three horses were placed in a high walled
enclosure, small holes having been made in the walls for the
admission of the rats, and subsequently stopped up. Several
men armed with torches and sticks, then entered the yard,
which was so full of rats that they could strike right and
left without aim and yet be sure of destroying them. Two
thousand six hundred and fifty rats fell victims to this expe-
riment in one night. At the end of a month, the experiment
having been several times repeated, sixteen thousand and
fifty rats had been killed. The danger accruing from the
burrowing of such enormous quantities of rats is by no means
slight.
Invaded by ‘The story of Bishop Hatto and the invasion
Rats. of the “Mdausethurm” on the Rhine by rats, is
well known if not entirely authentic. Some idea of what it would
be to be invaded by rats, may be gathered from Mrs.
Bowdich’s graphic account of her own painful experiences.
“When living in Cape Coast Castle, I used to see the rats
come in troops past my door, walking over my black boys
as they lay there, and who only tumed themselves over to
present the other sides of their faces and bodies when the
rats returned, and thought it a good joke. The fiercest
encounter which I ever had with them was during one of
those terrific storms which are more furious between the
tropics than elsewhere. I was then, however, under the
Equator, in a native hut, and heard an exceeding rustling
and movement all around me. To my terror I perceived
that these proceeded from a number of rats running up and‘
down the sides of the room in which I was to pass the night,
and who shortly began to run over me, they being disturbed
by the torrents of rain which were then falling. The only
weapon I could find was a shoe, and curling myself into a