234 MAMMALIA— LEMMING RAT. 



sides ; and the boatmen, Avho knovv^ how vaia resistance would be, calmly 

 suffer the living torrent to pass over, which it does without farther damage. 

 If they meet v/ith a stack of hay or corn which interrupts their passage, 

 instead of going over it, they gnaw their way through ; if they are stopped 

 by a house in their course, if they cannot get through it, they continue there 

 till they die. It is happy, however, that they eat nothing that is prepared 

 for human subsistence ; they never enter a house to destroy the provisions, 

 but are contented with eating every root and vegetable that they meet. If 

 they happen to pass through a meadow, they destroy it in a very short time, 

 and give it an appearance of being burnt up and strewed with ashes. If 

 they are interrupted in their course, and a man should imprudently venture 

 to attack one of them, the little animal is no v/ay intimidated by the dis- 

 parity of strength, but furiously flies up at its opponent, and barking some- 

 Avhat like a puppy, wherever it fastens it does not easily quit its hold ; if, at 

 last, the leader be found out of its line, which it defends as long as it can, 

 and be separated from the rest of its kind, it sets up a plaintive cry, different 

 from that of anger, and, as some say, gives itself a voluntary death, by hang- 

 ing itself on the fork of a tree. 



An enem.y so numerous and destructive would quickly render the coun- 

 tries where they appear, utterly uninhabitable, did it not fortunately happen 

 that the same rapacity that animates them to destroy the labors of mankind, 

 at last impels them to destroy each other. After committing incredible 

 devastation, they are at last seen to separate into two armies, opposed with 

 deadly hatred, along the coasts of the larger lakes and rivers. The Lapland- 

 ers, who observe them thus drawn up to fight, instead of considering their 

 mutual animosity as a happy riddance of a most dreadful pest, form omi- 

 nous prognostics from the manner of their engagements. They consider 

 their combats as a presage of war, and expect an invasion from the Russians 

 or Swedes, as the side next those kingdoms happens to conquer. The two 

 divisions, however, continue their engagements and animosity, until one 

 party overcomes the other : from that time they utterly disappear, nor is it 

 well known what becomes of either the conquerors or the conquered. 

 Some suppose, that they rush headlong into the sea ; others, that they kill 

 themselves, as some are found hanging on the forked branches of trees; 

 and others, that they are destroyed by the young spring herbage. But the 

 most probable opinion is, that having devoured the vegetable productions 

 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 h^ive been known to infect the air for several miles 

 round, so as to produce very malignant disorders. They also seem to infect 

 the plants they have gnav/ed, for the cattle often die that afterv/ards feed in 

 the places v/here they have passed. The inhabitants have an opinion, as 

 they do not know whence such numbers proceed, that they fall with the rain. 



