342 HioTOilY OF 



pestilence, destroy all the productions of the earth. It is de- 

 scribed as being larger than a dormouse, with a bushy tail, 

 though shorter. It is covered with thin hair of various colours. 

 The extremity of the upper part of the head is black, as are 

 likewise the neck and shoulders, but the rest of the body is red- 

 dish, intermixed with small black spots of various figures, as far 

 as the tail, which is uot above half an inch long. The eyes are 

 little and black, the ears round and inclining towards the back, 

 the legs before are short, and those behind longer, which gives 

 it a great degree of swiftness. But what it is much more re- 

 markable for than its figure, are, its amazing fecundity and ex- 

 traordinary migrations. 



In wet seasons, all of the rat kind are known to propagate 

 more than in dry •, but this specit s in particular is so assisted in 

 multiplying by the moisture of the weather, that the inhabitants 

 of Lapland sincerely believe that they drop from the clouds, 

 and that the same magazines that furnish hail and snow pour down 

 the leming also upon them. In fact, after long rain, these ani- 

 mals set forward from their native mountains, and several millions 

 in a troop deluge the whole plain with their numbers.' They 

 move, for the most part, in a square, marching forward by night, 

 and lying still by day. Thus, like an animated torrent, they 

 are often seen more than a mile broad covering the ground, and 

 that so thick that the hindmost touches its leader. It is in vain 

 that the poor inhabitant resists or attempts to stop their pro- 

 gress, they still keep moving forward, and though thousands are 

 destroyed, myriads are seen to succeed, and make their destruc- 

 tion impracticable. They generally move in lines, which are 

 about three feet from each other, and exactly parallel. Their 

 march is always directed from the north-west to the south-east, 

 and regularly conducted from the beginning. Wherever their 

 motions are turned, nothing can stop them ; they go directly 

 forward, impelled by some strange power ; and, from the time 

 they first set out, they never once think of retreating. If a 

 lake or a river happens to interrupt their progress, they all toge- 

 ther take the water and swim over it ; a fire, a deep well, or a 

 torrent does not turn them out of their straight lined direction ; 

 they boldly plunge into the flames, or leap down the well, and 



1 Pliil Traus. vol ii. p. 872, 



