I approve of them, and I
think if they were in existence again there would be a clearing of many
thousands of Rats. Some 15 or 20 years since, I supplied 400 Rats in one
week, all to be killed in Rat-pits.

Many of my readers may not understand what a Rat-pit is, and so I will
just give an outline as well as I can.

The Rat-pit is of circular construction, say ten feet diameter, and about
four feet six inches deep, the sides being perfectly smooth to prevent
the rats climbing up and making their escape. A certain number of Rats
are placed in the pit according to the arrangements made with the owner
of the dog. Then the dog is put in the pit with the rats to kill them,
which a good dog does very quickly.

The reason the pit is built circular is so that the Rats will keep
running round, for if it were square they would all run in a corner, one
on the other, and then the dog would have no difficulty in killing them.
It is better to have the pit fairly deep; if not, the rats might escape.

I think the best dog, within my recollection, that I have seen was a bull
and fox terrier, which killed 40 good Rats in three minutes and 21
seconds. I have read and heard of dogs doing better feats, but I am only
writing of what I have myself seen. I may say that the records for Rat-
killing in Rat-pits are held by a dog called Jacko, which killed 200 Rats
in 14 minutes and 37 seconds, and 1,000 Rats in less than one hour and 40
minutes.

The Rat-catcher has also some very dirty jobs to do sometimes. Often he
has to go under all sorts of cellar floors, both wet and dry, but the
majority of places are very wet and dirty, for the Rats nearly always
come out of some filthy drain, and very often near a water-closet, the
abominable smell arising from these places being sufficient to cause a
fever.

I remember being once employed at a hospital, and I was paid at the rate
of 5s. per visit for trapping Rats. Well, I found that 5s. per visit did
not pay me (I had about 120 traps set all over the place), so I went
before the committee and requested 8s. per night. The committee said
they thought 5s. per visit was enough, and one or two of them said they
thought 8s. per night was above a Rat-catcher's pay. Now, as I was not
depending on that particular job at the time, I turned round and told
them what I thought. I told them I considered Rat-catching was a skilled
occupation, and I also offered any of them a five-pound note if they