MAMMALIA—LEMMING RAT. 933 
THE LEMMING RAT OR LAPLAND MARMOT, 
Is of the shape of a-mouse, but has a shorter tail; its body is about the 
length of five inches, covered with fine hair of various colors. Those of 
Norway are of the size of a water rat; but those of Lapland are scarcely as 
large as mice. The former are variegated with black and tawny in the 
upper parts; the sides of the head and the under parts are white. The legs 
are grayish, and the under parts of the body of a dull white. In some, there 
are many red hairs about the mouth, resembling whiskers, six of which are 
longer and redder than the rest. The mouth is but small, and the upper 
lip is divided like the squirrel’s. The remains of the food in the throat 
of this animal, incline us to imagine it ruminates. The head is large, short, 
and thick; the neck short, and the body thick. The eyes are small and 
black; the ears round, and inclining towards the neck; the legs before are 
short, and those behind longer, which gives it a greater degree of swiftness ; 
the feet are clothed with hair, and armed with five very sharp and crooked 
claws; the middle claw is very long, and the fifth is like a little finger, or 
the spur of a cock, sometimes placed very high up the leg. This animal, 
therefore, whose legs are very short, runs very swift. It generally inhabits 
the mountains of Norway and Lapland, but descends in such great numbers 
in some years, and in some seasons, that the inhabitants look on their 
arrival as a terrible scourge, from which there is no possibility of delive- 
rance. 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 hindermost touches its leader. It is in vain that the inhabitants 
resist, or attempt to stop their progress; they still keep moving forward ; 
and though thousands are destroyed, myriads are seen to succeed and make 
their destruction 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-west, and regularly con- 
ducted 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 at first set out, they never think of retreating. If a 
lake or a river happens to interrupt their progress, they all together 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 mto the 
flames, or leap down the wel, and are sometimes seen climbing up on the 
other side. If they are interrupted by a boat across the river while they are 
swimming, they never attempt to swim round it, but mount directly up its 

1 Lemmus Norvegicus, Desm. The genus Lemmus has two upper and two lower in- 
cisors ; six upper and six lower molars. Molars with a flat crown and angular plates of 
enamel ; ears very short; fore feet in some species with five, in others four toes, proper 
for digging ; tail short and hairy. 
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