224 LETTER XXXV If. 



The sagacity of these animals in avoiding the traps 

 ami snares laid for them is astonishing and well 

 Known; and their various means of eluding danger, 

 together with their amazing fecundity, producing 

 from twelve to eighteen young at one time, render 

 ineffectual the united efforts of such a multitude of 

 enemies as combine for their destruction. Their 

 numbers would indeed increase beyond all power ot 

 re.-urv.nt, but that insatiable voraciousness impels them 

 V) devour one another, and the weaker invariably fall 

 a prey to the stronger. 



M. St. Pierre informs ns that in the Isle of France 

 rats are so extremely numerous tluit at sun set they 

 may be seen running about in all directions, and fre- 

 quently destroy a whole crop of covn in a single 

 night. In some of the houses they s\va.rm so prodi- 

 giously, that thirty thousand have been killed in a 

 year; they have also subterraneous magazines of 

 corn and fruit, and even climb the trees to devour th 

 young birds. 



Kaempfcr asserts that the Japanese have a method 

 of taming these rats, and cf teaching them a variety 

 of entertaining tricks, which are occasionally exhibit- 

 ed for the amusement of the populace. 



It is a singular .circumstance in the history of the&e 

 animals that the skins of such as have been found de- 

 voured in their holes have been curiously turned in- 

 side out, every part, even to the ends of the toes, be- 

 ing completely inverted. 



THE LEMING, OR LAPLAND MARMOT* 



This animal presents one of these singular plueno- 

 mena which to the curious observer of nature, have 

 always appeared particularly striking, and is distin- 

 guished from all other quadrupeds by habits peculiar 

 to itself, and for which it pusjzles philosophy to ac- 

 count. It is found only in the northern parts of our 

 continent, where immense numbers of these little ani- 

 mals sometimes overspread large tracts of country, 

 especially in Lapland, Sweden, and Norway. Their 

 appearance happens at uncertain periods, but, fortu- 

 nately for the inhabitants of these countries, not ot- 



