MAMMALIA — LEMMING RAT. 233 



THE LEMMING RAT,iOR LAPLAND MARMOT, 



Is of the shape of a mouse, but has a shorter tail ; its body is about the 

 length of five inches, covered with fine hair of various colors. Those of 

 Norway are of the size of a water rat ; but those of Lapland are scarcely as 

 large as mice. The former are variegated with black and tawny in the 

 upper parts; the sides of the head and the under parts are white. The legs 

 are grayish, and the under parts of the body of a dull white. In some, there 

 are many red hairs about the mouth, resembling whiskers, six of which are 

 longer and redder than the rest. The mouth is but small, and the upper 

 lip is divided like the squirrel's. The remains of the food in the throat 

 of this animal, incline us to imagine it ruminates. The head is large, short, 

 and thick ; the neck short, and the body thick. The eyes are small and 

 black; the ears round, and inclining towards the neck ; the legs before are 

 short, and those behind longer, which gives it a greater degree of swiftness ; 

 the feet are clothed with hair, and armed with five very sharp and crooked 

 claws ; the middle claw is very long, and the fifth is like a little finger, or 

 the spur of a cock, sometimes placed very high up the leg. This animal, 

 therefore, whose legs are very short, runs very swift. It generally inhabits 

 the mountains of Norway and Lapland, but descends in such great numbers 

 in some years, and in some seasons, that the inhabitants look on their 

 arrival as a terrible scourge, from which there is no possibility of delive- 

 rance. They move, for the most part, in a square, marching forward by 

 night, and lying still by day. Thus, like an animated torrent, they are 

 often seen more than a mile broad covering the ground, and that so thick, 

 that the hindermost touches its leader. It is in vain that the inhabitants 

 resist, or attempt to stop their progress ; they still keep moving forward ; 

 and though thousands are destroyed, myriads are seen to succeed and make 

 their destruction impracticable. They generally move in lines, which are 

 about three feet from each other, and exactly parallel. Their march is 

 always directed from the north-west to the south-west, and regularly con- 

 ducted from the beginning. Wherever their motions are turned, nothing 

 can stop them ; they go directly forward, impelled by some strange power : 

 and from the time they at first set out, they never think of retreating. If a 

 lake or a river happens to interrupt their progress, they all together take 

 the water and swim over it ; a fire, a deep well, or a torrent, does not turn 

 them out of their straight lined direction ; they boldly plunge into the 

 flames, or leap down the well, and are sometimes seen climbing up on the 

 other side. If they are interrupted by a boat across the river while they are 

 swimming, they never attempt to swim round it, but mount directly up its 



' Lemmus Norvegicus, Desm. The genus Lemmus has two upper and two lower in- 

 cisors ; six upper and six lower molars. Molars with a flat crown and angular plates of 

 enamel ; ears very short ; fore feet in some species with five, in others four toes, proper 

 for digging -, tail short and hairy. 



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