The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-04
THE SEWER RAT
IS THE MENACE
A Story of Their Migration
From India to Every
where.

1 humanity. LIT. "A. OdIm0LIe ueNOIeS d.
article in the Revue du Mois to very
learned, very amusing and at the same
time very alarming study of rats. Let
us declare war on ratsi" says he, while
pointing out the strategic measures we
must take.
| The rats are on the way to conquer
| ing the world. And this invader is not
the old rat, known to the remotest
antiquity and against which dogs, cats,
hogs and owls waged fairly success
full warfare; it is not the mus rattus,
town rat or country rat, rather a
nuisance than a curse; no, the new con,
queror is the mus decumanus, or-to
give him his least fattering name-the
sewer rat.
His history runs back no great dis
tanee through the ages. He is first
mentioned in 1920. He then inhabited
India and Persia. But he invaded Eu-
rope in 1927, and this is how: India
was ravaged by famine and all Central
Asia was shaken by earthquakes; the
rat found the region no longer agree,
able and set forth to seek a more at
tractive country. The close-packed
army of these rodents crossed the Vol.
ga near Astrakan; they invaded south,
ern and eastern Prussia in 1850. Three
years later sixteen thousand of them
were destroyed; yet the survivors in
creased and multiplied.
The zoologist Bell mentions that
when the French government wanted
to move the Mofaucon boneyard away
protests were forthcoming because OF
a fear that the rats that infested it
would do mischief elsewhere. Thirty
five dead horses were thrown there ev,
cry day, more or less; on the morrow
only skeletons remained.
A little later the sewer rat conquer
ed Sweden and Norway; it seems that
he doesn't mind the cold, for he is
found on the northernmost shores Of
those countries. Jutland was long pro-
tected against invasion by an arm of
the sea, but one autumn night in 1S47
some fishers were on the Limfjord;
suddenly their boats were surrounded
by an incredible number of rats, brave,
Iy swimming northward. The army
landed on the peninsula of Thy, chased
out the old black rat, and established
themselves there.
Then the sewer rat founded colonies
in America About 1865 he was seen
along the coast, at the mouths OF
rivers; no doubt he got there by boat.
In 1870 he had not yet attacked the
upper Missouri, but in 1900 he was
everywhere, his invasion being checked
only by the Arctic ice.
At present he continues his ravages
in the West Indies, the Azores, and the
Cape Verde Islands, where he assails
the plantations of coffee, bananas, su-
garcane and oranges. In northeastern
England, in the estuary of the Humber,
there is a large island which fifteen
years ago afforded pasturage for three
thousand head of cattle; now it be-
longs to the rats; they have devastated
it so completely that rabbit couldn It
get a living there. "You can hardly
step without setting foot on a rats
nest,' says DR.. Calmette. "There is
no longer any trace of verdure. The
rats are gnawing the roots of plants;
if they didn It know how to swim they
would soon starve. Efforts have been
made to drown them by flooding the
low parts of the island, but they fed
to higher ground and waited for the
water to subside, so that they could
get back to their homes.''
On the Solingues Island in the Chan
mel they have occupied wild region
where grew only lichenas, moss and
sparse ferngrass. What do they feed
head to dig up the rat nests along a
stream and was surprised to find six
teen crabs in single hole and six in
duObneE. 1utN W6It dli large anu tHty
had not come there of their own accord,
for their legs had all been nipped off.
Apparently the rats go hunting at low
tide; they carry home crabs and de-
prive them of their means of locomo-
ton so as to make them defenceless.
All the crabs were alive, and wiggled
what was left of their legs quite fran
tically. The rats no doubt intended to
eat them, and their larder was well
filed.
Prodigious conquerors They not
only know how to gain victories but
how to profit by them. The history of
these hordes resembles that of the
Huns and the Mongols and awakens
| memories of those great radical migra-
tions that have transformed the sur
| face of the earth. There are Attilas
. and Gengis -Khans among these rodents,
extraordinary hordes of multitudes;
| there are also organizers, administra-
tors. and engineers
| The sewer rat is not afraid of the
sea and makes a voyage willingly.
When he sees a fine vessel in port he
Istudes her; and if she looks safe and