The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-26


The first rats were brought to the Com
stock from California in freight wagons,
principally, most likely in the big prairie
schooners,n slowed away among boxes
and crates of goods. Their rapid increase,
after their first appearance in the Com
stock, was astonishing. From ten to
fifteen young are produced at birth, and
there are several litters each year; be-
sides, rat is a great-grandfatherb before
he is year old. Then, the rats that colo
nized the Comstock towns encounter no
enemies. There were no cats in the
country.
The rats soon discovered the mines and
found therein a congenial home and a
home free from the terrifying presence
of members of the feline tribe. Never
was cat seen in any of the lower levels
of the mines, though they sometimes
prowl above the surface of the tunnels
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 logging
of the drifts. AS they increased in mum
bers 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
underground 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 congo
NAL to the rats, both old and young Cold
is thing unknown to them. 1t is as
though they had been given immense hot
houses in which to breed. Any tempera-
ture they desire, from go degrees to 1870
degrees, is at their command. Rats are
useful as scavengers in mines. They de-
YOUR all the scraps of meat and other food
thrown upon the ground by the miners
while at lunch, eating even the hardest
bones, thus preventing bad odor. AS the
decay of the smallest thing is unendura-
bic in a mine, the miners never intention
ally kill a rat.
The miners have a high opinion of their
sagacity. The rats generally give the
miners the first notice of danger When
big cave is about to occur they are seen
to swarm out of the drifts and scamper
about the floors of a 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 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 suspension of
work in a mine that is not connected with
other mines that are running, everything
eatable in the underground regions Is de-
voured, even the candle drippings on the
floors. When work is resumed the almost
famished creatures are astonishingly bold
and fearless They will come out of their
holes and get upon the underground en-
gines (even when they are in rapid mo-
tom 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.
Deacon Goode-I hear that Mrs. ToHings is