218 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Depredations Battles, &c. 



a lake, and their phalanx be separated by oars 

 or poles, they will not recede; but keep swim- 

 ming directly on, and soon get into regular order 

 again. They have sometimes been known even, 

 to endeavour to board or pass over a vessel. 

 Their march is chiefly by night, or early in the 

 morning; and they make such devastation among 

 the herbage, that the surface of the ground over 

 which they have passed, appears as if it had been 

 burned. They are even thought to infect the 

 plants which they gnaw; for cattle turned into 

 pastures where they have been, are said fre- 

 quently to die in consequence. Their number* 

 have at times induced the Norwegians to believe 

 that they had descended from the clouds; and 

 the multitudes that are sometimes found dead 

 on the banks of rivers, or other places, corrupt 

 by their stench the whole atmosphere around,, 

 and thus produce many diseases. 



An enemy so numerous and destructive would 

 soon completely ruin the countries they pass 

 through, did not the same rapacity that excites 

 them to ravage the productions of the earth, at 

 last impel them to destroy each other. Having 

 devoured all the herbage, they frequently divide 

 into two parties, attack each other, and fight like 

 hostile armies. From these battles, the supersti- 

 tious inhabitants of Sweden and Lapland pretend 

 to foretel not only wars, but also their success, 

 according to the quarters the animals come from, 

 and the side that is defeated. 



