Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-09-09
RATS THAT TRAVEL BY SEA.
Shifting of the Rat Population Due
to Ships.
New York SUM-

Every ship that comes into port bring.
its quota of undesirable i-mmigrants-no
the lunar kind that can be sent back b,
the next vessel, but ferocious, intelligent
descendants Of the army of rats which
the Pied Piper so deity enticed from the
German town of Hamelin by his sweet
music. When they land they become
wharf rats" Sewer rats" and "house
rats" Fortunately for us, the majority
stick TO the ships, and remain forever
ship rats"
The average sailor welcomes the APP
pearance of the rats on shipboard, and,
as a general rule, a sailor would not ship
on a vessel destitute of rats. The pres.
ence of the rats on the boat is a sure in
d~ication that the ship is seaworthy, and
when the rats begin TO leave it in a body
the sailors have no further use for the
vessel either. The intelligence Of the
ship rats in this respect is not TO be dis
puted. and the stories OF their abandon
ing a sinking ship long before the skipper
discovered the danger are not founded
upOn superstitious sailors yarns. SINH
larly the mine rats will ~foretell the caving
in Of a mine, and their exodus from a
certain mine in a body will always cause
a stampede among the miners, who, in
their haste to leave the threatened place
will abandon tools, machinery, and dinner
pals.
But the ship rats are far more interest
ing TO the average observer than the mine
rats, for they are a part of a great world
movement that is as important in its way
as any shifting Of the human population.
The commercial nayies Of the world have
given rats the opportunity to shift their
population according TO notions of their
own. Nature originally intended that the
brown rat should have one part OF the
earth for its habitatiOn. the black rat
another section. and the white-bellied ro-
dents q third division. While these great
nations o%verlapped each other a little,
their boundaries were pretty arbitrarily
fixed by the great oceans and other large
bodies Of water. a colony of powerful
rats might swim across the straits and
channels separating two islands, and thus
take possession Of a new country for their
descendants, but they could not hope 10
cross the Atlantic or Pacific, and journey
unaided from England TO America, or
from this country TO Australia.
So it was that the ships OF men brought
about the first great change in the distri-
button Of rats. From the first the rats
took to ships as ducks take to water.
They found grain. provisions, and water
in the hulls Of the old wooden ships of
two centuries ago. and ever since then
they have reared a race of hardy seamen
tina know the ways Of the ocean as well
as any Jack tar. They have been travel
ling back and forth to all parts of the
earth for many centuries now, and they
have created great changes in the rat
population of the globe.
This country never had any typical
rats-representatives Of the genus Mus
until the old black English rat came over
here on the ships Of the early colonists.
According to the best authorities. this
rodent originally came from India, from
which il has penetrated to every part Of
the habitable globe. Wherever ships go
these black rats are found. In three
centuries they have penetrated TO every
mainland and island Of the tropical. tenn
perate. and arctic zones. They have be-
familiar objects on all ships that
traverse the seas. and they are the wharf
rats of every seaport, differing only a
little in size and color. according to
the abundance of the food and the nature
OF the climate. In temperate regions
the English black rat is of a bluish-black,
but in tropical countries 1t is often seve-
raj shades lighter. 1t is about seven TO
inches long, with a tail about one
inch longer than its body.
For two centuries this English black
rat held undisputed way on the ships
the worlds commercial navies, and
hey distributed themselves over the
,reater part OF the worlds surface. Then
gradually there appeared upon the seas
mother rat. differing materially from the
lack rat. This alien creature had a
lack body with a white belly. Some ]
lines the body was a reddish-gray, which /
a the creature look larger and fiercer {
han il really was. A trifie larger and 1
troneer thar the black rat, the white !
.euied. or ~Alexandrian, rat made wal :
non the English rodents. The two could t
ever shin upon the same vessel. There
yould be a war to the death before the
hip left port, and after that the success =
race would hold uniisputed sway on c
NAT particular vessel. This new race of =
ats came from the tropical countries. G
very shin that started from Galapagos, e
ceiling. or Ascension Island was sure b
!, carry away with 1t Il company Of the q
,hite-bellied rats. They would board y
oe shin as soon as she was tied up at the :,
and the English black rats a
,ould be ruthlessly destroyed. Then the
arcer A~lexandrian rats would sail away q
, unknown ports. IL soon became evil d
mt that they liked warm countries, Q,
nd they refused TO land at n except %
tropical port. Thus they have spread i,
nearly all tropical countries, espe- n
allv I'm South America and our Southern m
.ates. leaving the colder countries X
~ their black rivals. a ship that comes OF
N mort with Alexandrian rats on board .,
odoubtedly halls from some tropical :,
nd. and they do not come ashore TO b,
tile down as inhabitants. In
BUT more recently a third race OF rats
20 appeared upon the ships, and these 70
reaten 10 exterminate and displace both w
a black and A~lexandrian rodents. This ~
own or Norway rat Is a native " -
lima. and the interior OF Asia. II is a al
Ige ferocious creature, and wherever
goes II destroys all competitors and
kes complete possession of the ships or
naryes. In It's native Ian IT is a large,
werful rodent. and upon the ships II A.,
tains even a larger size. Its length is m
nm : 10 9 inches. and its body is built +,
heavy lines. Neither the black nor gr
exandrian rat is any match for IL. SO ca
r this large brown rat has extended its &c
largely over cold countries. and
has come In contact chiefly with the
,elish black rat. But in the warm coun- pa
90 where Il has BEEN artincially intro tel
A, hac ouiekly supplanted all rivals. wi