934 MAMMALIA—LEMMING RAT. 
sides; and the boatmen, who know how vain resistance would be, calmly 
suffer the living torrent to pass over, which it does without farther damage. 
If they meet with 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 way intimidated by the dis- 
parity of strength, but furiously flies up at its opponent, and barking some- 
what 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 enemy 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 omit: 
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 have been known to infect the air for several miles 
round, s9 as to produce very malignant disorders. They also seem to infect 
the plants they have gnawed, for the cattle often die that afterwards feed in 
the places where they have passed. The inhabitants have an opinion, as 
they do not know whence such numbers proceed, that they fall with the rain. 
