The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-09-09
Rats in q Silver Mine.

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The first rats were brought to the Com
stock from California in freight wagons,
principally, most likely, in the big "prai-
RE schooners," slowed away among boxes
and crates of goods. Their rapid increase,
after their first appearance on the Com
stock, was astonishing. says the Engineer
inc Journal. From 10 to IA young are
produced at birth, and there are several
litters each year; besides, rat is great
grandfather before he is year old.
Then the rats that colonized the Comstock
towns encountered no enemies. There
were no cats in the country.
Soon stores, barns, warehouses, hotels
the whole town-were swarmlng WIN
rats. Cats were then brought over from
California. and the first lot sold for $2O
70 &25 Der head. Soon every prairie
schooner that crossed the mountains nad
sluue to it big cage filed with cats OF
xll colors and kinds. The price went
down to $40, then to S. head, and I'm
a,,v 40 many cats arrived that they could
not be given away.
For some time, however, crates and
cages filled with cats-or what was lett
of them after fighting all over the noun
tains-continued to arrive, and no sale
being found for them, they were turned
loose in the town. Soon the whole place
swarmed with cats, and the cat nuisance
was worse than the rat nuisance. and II
was a thousand times more vociterous.
The rats soon discovered the mines and
found therin a congenial home and
home free from the terrifying presence OF
members of the feline tribe. Never was
a cat seen in any of the lower levels OF
the mines, though they sometimes prowl
about the surface of the tunnels. In the
first opening of the mines there was no
place for the rats but as soon as the TIM
bers began to be set up and cribs OF waste
rock built they were able to find safe hid
ing places; also there was room tor them
everywhere behind the tagging OF the
drifts. As they increased 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 I'm
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 congo
NAL to the rats, both old and young. Cold
IS unknown to them. It is as though they
had been given an immense dollhouse in
which to breed. Any temperature they
desire, from 60 degrees to $50 degrees, is
at their command. Rats ars useful as
scavengers in mines. They devour all
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 uncomfortable in a
mine, the miners never intentionally kill
rat.
The miners have 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 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 con-
nected with other mines that are running
everything eatable in the underground re-
gions 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 motion) and drink the
oil out of the oil cups, quite regardless of
the presence of the engineers.
A fire in 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.