54 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



Animals of the deer kind frequently take to the water, 

 especially in the rutting season, when the stags are seen 

 swimming for several leagues at a time, from island to 

 island, in search of the does, especially in the Canadian 

 lakes; and in some countries where there are islands near 

 the sea-shore, they fearlessly enter the sea, and swim to 

 them. In hunting excursions, in North America, the elk 

 of that country is frequently pursued for great distances 

 through the water. 



The large herbiverous animals, which are gregarious, can 

 never remain long in a confined region, as they consume 

 so much vegetable food. The immense herds of bisons 

 which often, in the great valley of the Mississippi, blacken 

 the surface near the banks of that river and its tributaries, 

 are continually shifting their quarters, followed by wolves 

 which prowl about in their rear. " It is no exaggera- 

 tion," says Mr. James, "to assert, that in one place, on 

 the banks of the Platte, at least ten thousand bisons burst 

 on our sight in an instant. In the morning, we again 

 sought the living picture, but upon all the plain, which last 

 evening was so teeming with noble animals, not one re- 

 mained." 



Besides the disposition common to the individuals of 

 every species slowly to extend their range in search of 

 food, in proportion as their numbers augment, a migratory 

 instinct often developes itself in an extraordinary manner, 

 when, after an unusually prolific season, or upon a sudden 

 scarcity of provisions, great multitudes are threatened by 

 famine. We shall enumerate several illustrations of these 

 migrations, because they may put us upon our guard 

 against attributing a high antiquity to a particular species, 

 merely because it is diffused over a great space; they 

 show clearly how soon, in a state of nature, a newly-created 

 species might spread itself, in every direction, from a sin- 

 gle point. 



In very severe winters, great numbers of the black 

 bears of America migrate from Canada into the United 

 States; but in milder seasons, when they have been well 

 fed, they remain and hybernate in the north. The rein- 

 deer, which in Scandinavia can scarcely exist to the south 

 of the sixty-fifth parallel, descends, in consequence of the 

 greater coldness of the climate, to the fiftieth degree, in 

 Chinese Tartary, and often roves into a country of more 

 southern latitude than any part of England. 



In Lapland, and other high latitudes, the common 

 squirrels, whenever they are compelled, by want of provi- 

 sions, to quit their usual abodes, migrate in amazing num- 

 bers, and travel directly forwards, allowing neither rocks, 

 forests, nor the broadest waters, to turn them from their 

 course. Great numbers are often drowned in attempting 

 to pass friths and rivers. In like manner, the small Nor- 



way rat sometimes pursues its migrations in a straight line 

 across rivers and lakes; and Pennant informs us, that 

 when, inKamtschatka, the rats become too numerous, they 

 gather together in the spring, and proceed in great bodies 

 westward, swimming over rivers, lakes, and arms of the 

 sea. Many are drowned or destroyed by water-fowl or 

 fish. As soon as they have crossed the river Penchim, at 

 the head of the gulf of the same name, they turn south- 

 ward, and reach the rivers Judoma and Ochot by the mid- 

 dle of July, a district surprisingly distant from their point 

 of departure. 



The lemings, also of Scandinavia, often pour down in 

 myriads from the northern mountains, and devastate the 

 country. They generally move in lines which are about 

 three feet from each other, and exactly parallel, and they 

 direct their march from the north-west to the south-east, 

 going directly forward through rivers and lakes, and when 

 they meet with stacks of hay or corn, gnawing their way 

 through them instead of passing round. 



Vast troops of the wild ass, or onager of the ancients, 

 which inhabit the mountainous deserts of Great Tartary, 

 feed, during the summer, in the tracts east and north of 

 Lake Aral. In the autumn they collect in herds of hun- 

 dreds and even thousands, and direct their course towards 

 the north of India, and often to Persia, to enjoy a warm re- 

 treat during winter. Bands of two or three hundred quag- 

 gas, a species of wild ass, are sometimes seen to migrate 

 from the tropical plains of southern Africa to the vicinity 

 of the Malaleveen river. During their migrations they 

 are followed by lions, who slaughter them night by 

 night. 



The migratory swarms of the springbok, or Cape ante- 

 lope, afford another illustration of the rapidity with which 

 a species, under certain circumstances, may be diffused 

 over a continent. When the stagnant pools of the immense 

 deserts south of the Orange river dry up, which often hap- 

 pens after intervals of three or four years, myriads of 

 these animals desert the parched soil, and pour down like 

 a deluge on the cultivated regions nearer the Cape. The 

 havoc committed by them resembles that of the African 

 locusts; and so crowded are the herds, that "the lion has 

 been seen to walk in the midst of the compressed pha- 

 lanx with only as much room between him and his victims 

 as the fears of those immediately around could procure by 

 pressing outwards." 



Dr. Horsfield mentions a singular fact in regard to the 

 geographical distribution of the Mydaus meliceps, a kind 

 of polecat inhabiting Java. This animal is confined exclu- 

 sively to those mountains which have an elevation of more 

 than seven thousand feet above the level of the ocean: 

 on these it occurs with the same regularity as many 



