INDEX. 305 



when digested : in what it differs from the rest of the rep- 

 tile tribe : the leech used in medicine : a girl of nine years 

 old killed by leeches : best way of applying leeches, v. 4-36. 



Legs, a man without legs or hands performed astonishing feats 

 of dexterity, iii. 330. 



Leming, a bold animal of the rat kind, native of Scandinavia : 

 often pours down in myriads from the northern mountains, 

 and, like a pestilence, destroys all the productions of the 

 earth: Laplanders believe they drop from the clouds: 

 their description : they move in a square, forward by night, 

 and lying still by day : whither their motions are turned 

 nothing can stop them : a fire, a deep well, a torrent, does 

 not turn them out of their direction: they never retreat : 

 interrupted by a boat across a river, they go over it : stop- 

 ped by a stack of hay or corn, they gnaw their way through : 

 and obstructed by a house they cannot get through, con- 

 tinue before it till they die : eat nothing prepared for hu- 

 man subsistence : never enter a house to destroy provisions : 

 passing through a meadow, destroy it in a short time, and 

 leave it with the appearance of being burnt up, and strewed 

 over with ashes : a man imprudently attacking one of them, 

 the animal furiously flies at him, barking somewhat like a 

 puppy, fastens, and does not easily quit its hold : their 

 leader forced out of the line, after a long defence, and 

 separated from the rest, sets up a plaintive cry, not of anger, 

 and hangs itself on the fork of a tree : they destroy and 

 devour each other : after incredible devastations, they se- 

 parate into armies, opposed with deadly hatred, and move 

 along the coasts of the larger lakes and rivers: the Lap- 

 landers form prognostics from the manner of their arrange- 

 ment : what prognostics : the divisions continue their en- 

 gagements and animosity until one party be overcome; 

 then they disappear, and it is supposed that, having no- 

 thing to subsist on, they devour each other : their carcasses 

 sometimes infect the air for miles around, and produce 

 malignant disorders : they seem also to infect the plants, 

 the cattle often dying in the places where they passed : 

 the male larger and more beautifully spotted than the 

 female : are extremely prolific : breeding does not hinder 

 their march, some carrying one young in their mouth, and 

 another on their back : are greatly preyed upon by the 

 ermine, and even by the rein-deer: dogs and cats detest 

 their flesh, but the Laplanders esteem it good eating, and 

 devour it greedily, iii. 191. 



Leopard, the American, is neither so fierce nor so valiant as 

 that of Africa and Asia, ii. 169. The large, and the leo- 

 pard or panther of Senegal : differences between those ani- 

 mals, 429. Leopard will not fly at the approach of the 

 lion, 409. 



VOL. VI. U 



