The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-09
RATS IN MINES.
There They are Welcomed by Man and
-r are Never Harmed.
From the Engineering Journal

-r are Never Harmed.
From the Engineering Journal
The first rats were brought to the Com
stock from California in freight wagons,
principally most likely in the big ''prairie
schooners," slowed away among boxes
and crates of goods. Their rapid increase
after their first appearance on the Com
stock was astonishing. From ten to four
teen young are produced at birth, and
there are several filters each year; be-
sides a rat is great-grandfather before
he is year old. Then the rats that col
onize the Comstock towns encountered
no enemies. There were no cats in the
country.
The rats soon discovered the mines and
found therein congenial home and a
home free from the terrifying tribe
Never was cat seen in any of the lower
levels of the mines, though they some
times prowl about the surface of the tun-
nels. In the first opening of the mines
there was no place for the rats, but as
soon as the timbers began to be set up
and cribs of waste rock built, they were
able to find safe hiding places; also, there
was room for them everywhere behind
the tagging of the drifts. AS they in
creased in numbers there was on all
sides an increase of space through the
rapid extraction of ore by the miners.
They doubtless soon discovered that
though man was their enemy on the sur
face, he was their friend down in the un-
derground drifts and chambers He
shared his meal with them, and they
scampered and capered about him with
perfect impunity. The warmth of the
lower levels appeared to be very congenial
to the rats, both old and young Cold is
a thing unknown to them. 1t is as though
they had been given immense lighthouses
in which to breed. Any temperature
they desire, from co. to 1902 is at their
command. Rats are useful as scavengers
in mines. They devour all the scraps of
meat and other food thrown upon the
ground by the miners while at lunch, eat
ing even the hardest bones, thus prevent
ing bad odDr. AS the decay of the
smallest thing is uncomfortable in a mine,
the miners never Intentionally kill a rat.
The miners have high opinion of their
sagacity. The rats generally give the
miners the first notice of danger. When
a big cave is about to occur they are seen
TO swarm outiof the drifts and scamper
about the floors of level at unwonted
times. The settling of the waste rock
probably pinches the animals in their
dens, causing them at once to leave in
search Of less dangerous quarters.
At times, when a mine has been shut
down for few weeks, the rats become
ravenously hungry. Then they do not
scruple to devour the young old, and
weak of their kind. During the suspen-
sion of work in mine that is not connec-
ted with other mines that are running.
everything eatable in the underground re-
gion is devoured, even the candle drip
pings on the floors. When work is re-
sumed the almost famished creatures are
astonishingly bold and fearless. Then
they will come out of their holes and get
upon the underground engines (even when
they are in rapid motioul and drink the
oil out of the oil cups, quite regardless of
the presence of the engineers.
A fire in a mine slaughters the rats by
the wholesale. Few escape, as the gases
penetrate every nook and Granny of the
underground regions, and often so sud
denly as to asphyxiate them in their
homes.