Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-09-01
RATS CLIMB TREES.
THIS is NO FAIRY STORY BUT APLtt
STATEMENT OF FACT.

If You Don't Believe Il just Take a Trip
to Cocos and Christmas Islands and Sec
for Yourself-somo Wonderful Crabs
Are There Also.
Cocos and Christmas Islands would
be pretty comfortable resorts If it were
not for their extreme remoteness and
for the bad habit the rats and the crabs
there have acquired of climbing the
trees, and making themselves pernic-
iously active in other surprising direc-
tons. Mr.. Darwin said that he didn't
believe crabs could climb trees, but Mr..
Darwin had never lived on the Christ
mas Islands, and unhappily did not
live to read the report that has just
been issued, with all due Formally, by
the Government of Her Majesty Queen
Victoria.
1t is sisterly interest that the Queen
takes in these two islands off the SOUTH
ern coast of Sumatra, for these little
dots on the map have a monarch of
their own, King George Clunies-Ross
III. The Queen has made a practice
of sending a commissioner to visit her
brother monarch once year, and, ac-
cording to the report Of the latest visit,
the labor problem recently has been
to the fact that the phosphate beds are
worked by Bantamese coolies, fourteen
in all, who are such a bad lot that it
requires the entire supply of native Co.
cos, seventeen in all, to keep the Ban
tamese working, one Cocos being told
off to watch one Bantamese, with three
left over for emergencies. Just why
the Cocos natives are not set to work
in place of the Bantamese Is not exact
I ly apparent, except that they are said
to be rather stupid, and, like the in
habitants of Pitcairn Islands, are de-
generating; one indication of the de-
generacy, according to Her Majesty s
commissioner, being the preference of
Cocos women for European medicines,
with which they dose themselves quite
regardless of the nature of their all
ments. 1t is also reported that on
days when the water is smooth the
women spend the whole day gazing at
their reflections on it's surface, and get
lost in admiration, although the COM
missioner does not report that they
have any especial excuse for this con-
duct on the ground of extreme beauty.
Unhappily, the commissioner did not
see any of the Cocos crabs actually en-
gagged in climbing trees, but there was
so much testimony to that effect that
he had no doubt about it. Another
queer custom of one variety CT the Co.
cos crab is to march down to the mar
| gin of the sea in December or Janu-
airy, the entire crab population of the
| island going down in procession, which
lasts for fifteen days. The female de-
posits her eggs, and then the process
sion faces about and marches back, ex-
tending its return over another fifteen
days. When the eggs are Matched, the
young crabs likewise form in line and
move uphill.
The other variety of crab, which is q
big land crab. has for an enemy the
Cocos rat before mentioned. The crat
carries an oil sac under his tail which
is esteemed as a special luxury by the
rat. and many and gallant are the
| fights that take place, for while the
young crabs are not a match for the
rat, the old crab is, on the other hand
too much for him, and when you get {
crab at just the right age there is {
fight worth seeing.
The big rat is the bane of King Ross!
domains, and it is said that if 1t were
rot for dogs the houses on the islands
would not be habitable. In the sim
pie language of the commissioner, thi!
devastator has reddish brown hair
deepening into black, with half-whit,
TAIL which retires by day under stones
and rocks, and comes out at night to de
YOUR everything it can get hold of.
The commissioner adds: GAS thei
number has increased. and the difficult!
of obtaining food has increased also
they have adapted themselves to cir
cumstances by climbing the fruit tree
for food. An attempt to grow Indal
corn was frustrated by this pest TIT
commissioner who visited the island
in 1897 reported that he was consider
ably startled at dinner one day by
commOtion in the cocoa palms OUTSIDE
the window, but discovered that it wa
due to a fight up in the branches be
tween a rat and bat. A group o
dogs, who had learned by experience
that one of the combatants would pres
entity tumble to the ground. were wait
ing eXpectantly underneath.
One Foot Walks Faster.