The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-27
THE CAT BECAME wooLLY.
It Was Forced to Protect Itself From
High Temperature.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.

It Was Forced to Protect Itself From a
High Temperature.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
The subject of cats has been for many
years studied by naturaists and other
late sleepers, and the,books indicate that
the cat question has been exhausted.
have, however, found new breed of
cats, one not yet classified. This is the
cold storage cat, an animal of thick fur
and sluggish movement.
In the cold storage warehouses of Pitts
burg, when thew were at first established,
there were no rats or mice The temper
allure in the cold rooms was too low to
permit the existence of these nocturnal
animals. The keepers of these places
soon found however, that the rat was an
animal of remarkable ability
The ordinary rat of the United States
came originally from Norway. In that
cold country, naturalists say, the animal
was much better prepared To Withstand
the climate than 1t is in this country
were it suddenly transported to cold re
gion.
ADAPTED TO ANY TEMPERATURE.
If any ordinary cellar rat were put in a
cage, conveyed by ship to Spitzbergen and
released on that icy island it would freeze
to death in few hours. Yet there are
rats in Spitzbergen. These rats are fat
/ rascals, with long and very thick hair,
| and have adapted themselves to the tenn
| perature of the region.
1t is just such rats as these of the north
| ern regions that have adapted themselves
to the cold storage warehouses. After
some of these houses had been in opera
| tiou for a few months, the attendants
found that the rats were at work in the
rooms where the temperature was con-
staDtly kept below the freezing point In
| the warehouse of the Pittsburg Storage
Company, before its burning last fall,
two rats were killed by the employees.
They were found to be clothed in wonder
fully long and thick fur. even their taper
ing snaxe-lilze tails being covered by a
thick growth of hair
Rats of this variety, whose coats have
adapted themselves to the conditions un-
der which they live, have dOmesticated
themselves in all the storage warehouses
of Pittsburg.
WHERE THE DEMAND AROSE.
The prevalence of rats in these places
led to the Introduction of cats. Now it is
well known that pussy is lover of
warmth and comfort. She delights to
lie close to the fire when the snow is
drifting around the house, and to wash
her face with her warm, soft paws.
Cats, however, have great adaptable
/ ltY TO conditions. The wild cat OF Africa,
now extinct and living only in the form
| Of its domestic congener, was nurSed by
| the Egyptians as timepiece and so regu-
lated her eyes that by a glance at them
/ the inha bitant of Cairo was able to tell
/ the time of day without waiting for the
/ advent of Seth Warner.
! When cats were introduced into storage
/ houses, and turned loose in cold rooms,
| they pined and died because of the ex-
] cp
! of Investigations into this subject, that
( one cat was 1nelly introduced into the
/ rooms Of the Pennsylvania Storage Com
pany, on Water street, which was able TO
Withstand the low temperature.
THE RIGHT KIND OF A CAT.
She was cat of unusually thick fur,
I and she thrived and grew fat in quarters
/ where the temperature was below go.
/ BY careful nursing a brood of seven
kittens were developed in this warehouse
into sturdy, thick furred cats that love
an Icelandic cline. They have been dis
/ tributed among the other cold storage
! houses of Pittsburg, and have created a
| peculiar breed of cats adapted to the CON
ditions under which they must exist to
find their prey.
These cats are short-tailed, chubby
! pussies, with hair as thick and full of
under fur as the wildcats of the Canadian
woods One of the remarkable things
about them is the development of their
"feelers." These long, stiff hairs that
protrude from a cats nose and eyebrows
are, in the ordinary domestic feline.
about three inches long. In the cats cul-
/ tivated in the cold warehouses the feel
/ ers'' grow to the length of five and six
inches.
ONLY NATURAL RESULT.
This is probably because the light is
dim in these places and all movements
must be the result of the feeling OF the
sense.
In these two respects, the growth of
thick hair and the development of feel
ers the domestic cat shows the opera
ton of Darwin's well known law of the
survival of the fittest, in the development
of the conditions adapted to the environ
1 ment.
These are big words, and, if the great
cat that reigus in Tibet will forgive the
offense it will not happen again.
The storage people tell me that If one of
these furry cats is taken into the open
air, particularly during this hot spell, it
will die in a few hours. IL cannot endure
high temperature, and an introduction
to a stove would send 1t into f.