Evening star., 1900-10-10
RATS SEIZE An ISLAND.
Colony Established in ROstOn Hnr-
bor by Former Seafnrers.

From the New York Sun.
In Hull bay. the southern portion of Bos-
ton harbor is Sheep Island, which Is now
uInhabited by anything but rats Within
the last year they have multiplied SO fast
that il is common to see thirty Of them run
ming together on the beach They are not
like common house rats but are great gaunt
wharf rats that will put up good fight
with dog and make a cat think twice
before she tackles one OF them. They live
almost entirely on CLAIMS and other she'll
fish that abound on the shores of the
island. A yachtsman who does a good deal
Of shooting in the fall found them so in
QuiSitLHc while he was on the Island TINS
month that he had to shoot a number of
them. He saw one of them tackle good
sized crab, and in spite of It's claws haul
il out of its hole. Along the shore of the
island there are hundreds of empty horse
shoe crab shells, the meat having been
eaten out by the rats.
On the south end Of the island there are
a number Of low Sumac bus hes and back
berry bramb!es, and in the midst of these
the rats have made their nests. The north
side OF the island is a sand bluff about
eight feet high, and in this bluff swallows
used to dig nests but since the title of the
island has passed TO rats they have en-
tirely deserted it, going TO Long and Ped
decks islands to Join the colonies there.
Some TWO months ago a forty-foot sloop
ton. ON the way she was anchored about
two hundred feet from the east beach of
Sheep Island over night. About IL O'Clock
one of the crew heard scrat ching noise on
the bow. That night good deal OF the
food left on open shelves forward de-
stroyed by rats, though before that time no
one had ever seen sign of even mouse
on the boat. Those rats gave no end of
trouble, tilt at last two We're caught in a
trap and they Were evidently the only ones
on board. How did they get on the yacht?
Doubtless they swan off from Sheep
Island and came aboard up the anchor
cable. thus accounting for the scratching
noise that night.
But how did the rats come to be on
Sheep Island, for the other islands in the
harbOr are not 50 infested? An old fisher
man advances the theory that they went
there on the Lewiston. She an old
down east steamer. afJefUard used as an
excursion boat Out of Boston harbor. Some
Boston people chartered her to go to Camp
Wikoff at Montauk Point, Just after the
Spanish war, to bring home some of the
sick OF the Massachusetts regiments. She
was loaded with sick soldiers. but In trying
to get into Newport she struck Point Judi h
breakWater and was wrecked. She was
patched up ana brought here for repairs,
but il was found that she was in such bad
shape that it would cost more to repair her
than she was worth. 50 the job was aban-
doned and she was towed to Hough's Neck
to Dy burned for her metal. She was not
hauled out very far and only part uf the
stripping work had been done when the
November gale came along. She torn
from her anchorage and carried off to the
south. II is thought that when she went
by Pig Rocks she struck and began II lea k
badly. and that her rats-and she was full
ot ihcm-mddr up their minds to desert the
ship. Sheep island was almost directly in
her course. and she must have hung Up
there for while till the flooding tide and
Increasing gale carried her away again to
find permanent resting place the
weather shore of Grape Island. 1t Is prob
able that when the Lewiston brought up at
Sheep Island the rats decided to get on dry
land, and 50 left her. And they must have
all gone, too for there is no plague of ra Is
on Grape ISland
In confirmation of this theory. the fisher
men say they are regular ship rats, only
bigger: possibly because they have an al
most unlimited quantity of food within
easy reach.