268 MAMMALS. 



duug for rafts, which they load with grain on their return. The number attached to one of these 

 rafts is from four to ten, and each of them assists in launching it. It is also ciu-ious that they 

 swim on each side, and their faces are opposite, while their tails serve for rudders. These voyages 

 are not always successfid, for sometimes their boats sink, when they save themselves by s^'imming 

 with wonderful ingenuity. These curious circumstances were detailed to us by persons of credit, 

 who had had ocular demonstration of the fact." 



Pennant takes up this statement, and in his "Arctic Zoology," probably on its authority, 

 says that " there is a species in Iceland, alHed, as Dr. Pallas imagines, to the economic Moimc ; for, 

 like that, it lays in a great magazine of berries, by way of winter stores. This species is particularly 

 plentiful in the wood of Husafels. In a country where berries are but thinly dispersed, these 

 little animals are obliged to cross rivers to make their distant forages. In their return with the 

 booty to the magazines they are obliged to repass the stream of which Mr. Olafsen gives the fol- 

 lowing account." — He then quotes Olafsen's statement, and adds, " When I consider the wonderful 

 sagacity of beavers, and think of the management of the sqvurrels, which, in cases of similar necessity, 

 make a piece of bark their boat, and their tail the sail, I no longer hesitate to credit the relation."* 



Sir William Hooker (then Mr. Hooker), shortly after his return from Iceland, takes exception to 

 Pennant's view of the matter. " I am sorry," says he, " such a ridiculous story should have been 

 believed by a British zoologist, Iceland certainly possesses no species of Mus which our country 

 does not possess, and the Mice that are foimd there are not likely to be furnished with anj' instinct 

 or facidties sujjerior to those of our own Mice. The circimistance above is laughed at by the more 

 sensible Icelanders, and the species that performs these extraordinary feats which, according to 

 Povelson, is the Mus sylvaticus of Linnaeus, is not, to my knowledge, found in that country."! 



Mr. Henderson, however, being cognisant of Hooker's scepticism on the point, took advantage 

 of the opportunities which a residence on the island for some time, gave him to get as much in- 

 formation about it as he could. He appears not to have seen it himself, but he says, " There is nothing 

 about Husafell deserving of notice excejjt its Mouse, the history of which has rendered it more 

 famous than other parts of the island where the same zoological phenomenon has not presented itself. 

 Having been apprised of the doubts that were enteitained on this subject, before 

 setting out on my second excursion, I made a point of inqiriring of diiferent individuals as to the 

 reality of the account, and I am happy in being able to say that it is now established as an impor- 

 tant fact in natural history, by the testimony of two eye-witnesses of unquestionable veracitj^, the 

 clergyman of Briam.slaek, and Madame Benedictson of Stickeshobn : both of whom assured me that 

 they had seen the expedition performed repeatedly. Madame Benedictson in particular recollected 

 having spent a whole afternoon, in her younger daj's, at the margin of a small lake on which these 

 skilful navigators had embarked, and amused herself and her companions 1)}' driving them away 

 from the sides of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed that they make use of 

 dried mushrooms as sacks in which they convey their provisions to the river and thence to their 

 homes. Nor is the structure of their nests less remarkable. From the surface of the ground a long 

 pamige runs into the earth, similar to that of the IceJandic houses, and terminates in a large and deep 

 hole, intended to receire an// wafer that nun/ find its irai/ through the passage, and serving, at the same 

 time, as a plaee for their dung. About two-thirds of the passage in, two diagonal roads lead to their 

 slnping apartment and the magazine, which the// aliea//s co//trire to keep free from nrf.X 



* Pennant, TH0ii.\s, " Arctic Zoology," Introduction, J Henderson, Ebbnezer, " Journal of a Residence in 



P- '■''s- Iceland, in the years 1814, 1815, 1818," ii. 180. 



t Hooker, W. J. " Tour in Iceland," 1813, i. p. r)2. 



