I am inclined to
favour the idea that these creatures are just as tenacious
of life as human beings are; but to say they have keener
intuitive capacity than we is arrant nonsense. It is true
they do not like leaky ships any more than their crews do;
and they leave them for the same particular reasons as would
induce them to leave districts on shore. Scarcity of food
or comfort, or danger of attack, create their itinerant
moods. Of course if their pasture is good they are difficult
to get rid of. They are prolific and cling to their young.
That unquestionably is a reason for their willingness to be
driven from a position where the food supply may be
precarious. They have their channels of communication which
are as difficult to cut off as to find out, so that when
they do leave a vessel that is in port it is pretty certain
they have heard of some more comfortable quarters and a
better playground. This accounts for them clearing out of a
ship just before she sails, thus throwing some poor
superstitious creature into abject fear that their exodus is
the forerunner of calamity. To carry the superstition out
logically, instead of rats being exterminated throughout a
place or a vessel, they should really be encouraged to
remain and multiply.
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