CATS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Your correspondent of September 3rd is quite right as to cats being a great protection against snakes. At my house near Jerusalem many cats are kept for this purpose, although snakes are not so common, or in general so deadly, in Palestine as in many other countries.
The saving of two cats from the s.s. West Point' by the s.s. Mauretania' reminds me of a carious instance of a cat unintentionally saving the life of a man. Many years ago I had a collision case for a steamer which had sunk a sailing ship in the Atlantic. The steamer's boats were promptly lowered, and, notwithstanding the darkness (it was night), saved a number of the crew of the sailing ship. Those in charge of the boats, thinking that they had saved all, were about to return to their steamer, when they heard the piteous mewing of a cat. Rowing up to the sound, they lifted a cat out of the water, and as she was raised the head of a man rose from under her. He was the last of the men of the sailing ship, and the cat had taken refuge on his head. He was unconscious, but was resuscitated, so all the men were saved.
The captain of the steamer gave me the cat, which lived for some years in my house. She would never touch milk ; I suppose in her long voyages in the sailing ship she had not been used to such a luxury. She used to run up the curtains and sit on the top of the curtain-pole, as I suppose rehearsing some climbing of the rigging to which she had been accus-
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