370 



ANIMALS OP 



kind, it sets up a plaintive cry, different from 

 that of anger, and, as some pretend to say, 

 gives itself a voluntary death, by hanging it- 

 self on the fork of a tree. 



An enemy so numerous and destructive 

 would quickly render the countries where 

 they appear utterly uninhabitable, did it not 

 fortunately happen that the same rapacity 

 that animates them to destroy the labours of 

 mankind, at last impels them to destroy and 

 devour each other. a After committing incre- 

 dible devastations, they are at last seen to 

 separate into two armies, opposed with dead- 

 ly hatred, along the coast of the larger lakes 

 and rivers. The Laplanders, who observe 

 them thus drawn up to fight, instead of con- 

 sidering their mutual animosities as a hap- 

 py riddance of the most dreadful pest, form 

 ominous prognostics from the manner of their 

 arrangement. They consider their combats 

 as a presage of war, and expect an invasion 

 from the Russians or the Swedes, as the sides 

 next those kingdoms happen to conquer. The 

 two divisions, however, continue their en- 

 gagements and animosity until one party over- 

 comes the other. From that time they ut- 

 terly disappear, nor is it well known what 

 becomes 01 either the conquerors or the con- 

 quered. Some suppose that they rush head- 

 long into the sea, others that they kill them- 

 selves, as some are found hanging on the 

 forked branches of a tree, and others still 

 that they are destroyed by the young spring 

 herbage. But the most probable opinion is, 

 that, having devoured the vegetable produc- 

 tions of the country, and having nothing more 

 to subsist on, they then fall to devouring each 

 other; and, having habituated themselves to 

 that kind of food, continue it. However this 

 be, they are often found dead by thousands, 

 and their carcasses have been known to in- 

 fect the air for several miles round, so as to 

 produce very malignant disorders. They 

 seem also to infect the plants they have gnaw- 

 ed, for the cattle often die that afterwards 

 feed in the places where they passed. 



As to the rest, the male is larger and more 

 beautifully spotted than the female. They 

 are extremely prolific ; and, what is extraor- 

 dinary, their breeding does not hinder their 



* Dictionalre I'aUonee, vol. ii. p. GlO. 



march ; for some of them haTe been observ- 

 ed to carry one young one in their mouth 

 and another on their back. They are great- 

 ly preyed upon by the ermine, and, as we 

 are told, even by the rein-deer. The Swedes 

 and Norwegians, who live by husbandry, 

 consider an invasion from these vermin as a 

 terrible visitation ; but it is very different 

 with respect to the Laplanders, who lead a 

 vagrant life, and who, like the lemings them- 

 selves, if their provisions be destroyed in one 

 part of the country, can easily retire to ano- 

 ther. These are never so happy as when an 

 army of lemings come down amongst them ; 

 for then they least upon their flesh ; which, 

 though horrid food, and which, though even 

 dogs and cats are known to detest, these 

 little savages esteem very good eating, and 

 devour greedily. They are glad of their ar- 

 rival also upon another account, for they al- 

 ways expect a great plenty of game the year 

 following, among those fields which the le- 

 mings have destroyed. 



THE MOLE. 



To these minute animals of the rat kind, 

 a great part of whose lives is past in holes 

 under ground, I will subjoin one little ani- 

 mal more, no way resembling the rat, except 

 that its whole life is spent there. As we have 

 seen some quadrupeds formed to crop the 

 surface of the fields, and others to live upon 

 the tops of trees, so the mole is formed to live 

 wholly under the earth, as if nature meant 

 that no place should be left wholly untenant- 

 ed. Were we from our own sensations to 

 pronounce upon the life of a quadruped that 

 was never to appear above ground, but was 

 always condemned to hunt for its prey under- 

 neath, obliged, whenever it removed from one 

 place to another, to bore its way through a 

 resisting body, we should be apt to assert 

 that such an existence must be the most 

 frightful and solitary in nature. However, 

 in the present animal, though we find it con- 

 demned to all those seeming inconveniences, 

 we shall discover no signs of wretchedness or 

 distress. No quadruped is fatter, none has 

 a more sleek or glossy skin ; and, though de- 

 nied many advantages that most animals en- 



