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Show RATS IN A SILVER MINE. Their Usefulness as Scavengers and Saps-city Saps-city as Danger Signals. The first rats were brought to the Comstock from California in freight wagons principally, most likely in the big 4 'prairie schooners," stowed away among boxes and crates of goods. Their rapid increase, after their first appear-! appear-! ance on the Comstock, was astonishing. From 10 to 14 youig are produced at a birth, and there are several litters each year; besides, a rat is a great-grandfather before he is a year old. Then, the rats that colonized the Comstock towns encountered no enemies. There were no cats in the country. The rats soon discovered the mines and found therein a congenial home, and a home free from the terrifying presence pres-ence of members of the .feline tribe. Never was a cat seen in any of the lower levels of the mines, though they sometimes some-times prowl about tho surface of the tunnels. In the first opening of the mines there was no place for the rats, but as soon as the timbers began to be Bet up and cribs of waste rock built they were able to find safe hiding places; also there was room for them everywhere behind be-hind the lagging of the drifts. As they Increased in numbers there was on all sides an increase of space through the rapid extraction of ore by the miners. They doubtless soon discovered that, though man was their enemy on the surface, sur-face, he was their friend down in the underground un-derground drifts and chambers. He shared his meal with them, and they scampered and capered about him with perfect impunity. The warmth of the lower levels appeared to be very congenial conge-nial to the rats, both old and young. Cold is a thing unknown to them. It is as though they had been given immense hothouses in which to breed. Any temperature tem-perature they desire, from 60 degrees to 130 degrees, is at their command. Rats are useful as scavengers in mines. They devour all the scraps of meat and other food thrown upon the ground by the miners while at lunch, eating even tho hardest bones, thus preventing bad odor. As the decay of the smallest thing is un endurable in a mine, the miners never intentionally kill a rat. The miners have a high opinion of their sagacity. The rats generally give the miners the first notice of danger. When a big cave ia about to occur, they are seen to swarm out of the drifts and scamper about the floors of a level at unwonted un-wonted times. The settling of the waste rock probably pinches the animals in their dens, causing them at once to leave in search of less dangerous quarters. At times, when a mine has been Bhut down for a few weeks, the rats become ravenously hungry. Then they do not scruple to devour the young, old and weak of their kind. During the suspension suspen-sion of work in a mine that is not connected con-nected with other mines that are running, run-ning, everything eatable in the underground under-ground regions is devoured, even the candle drippings on the floors. When work is resumed, the almost famished creatures are astonishingly bold and fearless. Then they will come out of their holes and get upon the underground un-derground engines even when they are in rapid motion and drink the oil out of the oil cups, quite regardless of the presence pres-ence of the engineers. A fire in a mine slaughters the rats by the wholesale. Few escape, as the gases penetrate every nook and cranny of the underground regions, and often so suddenly sud-denly as to asphyxiate them in their homes. Engineering Journal. |