360 NATURAL HISTORY HEADER. 



to seven in each. It is a most audacious little fellow, and 

 fears neither man nor beast, refusing to give way save on 

 the compulsion of superior force. Travelers speak of hav- 

 ing seen them frisking about in hundreds in their native 

 forests, when they dispute the path even with man. 



4. From the vantage-ground of the mounds of earth at 

 the entrance to their burrows they sit on their beam-ends 

 and scan the intruders with comical gravity. If the trav- 

 eler has a dog witli him, unhappily ignorant of the ways 

 of this cool and impudent varmint, he will likely advance 

 with the easy nonchalance of his tribe to smell the odd 

 little animal — which betrays no fear at his approach — to 

 be rewarded by a sharp and trenchant bite on the nose, a 

 reception so sudden and unexpected that it is ten chances 

 to one against his prosecuting his investigations further, 

 for a dog is too well bred to attack any strange living ob- 

 ject which awaits his approach. 



5. The lemming multijilies so rapidly that in the course 

 of ten or twelve seasons food becomes scarce, and, on the 

 approach of some winter, when the food-question has be- 

 come one of life or death, the overstocked market is re- 

 lieved by an expedient unparalleled in its nature among four- 

 footed animals. This singular little creature is so local in 

 its habits that, unless under the circumstances we are about 

 to narrate, it never leaves the mountain region to establish 

 itself on the plains, where food is more abundant. 



6. When the time for the settlement of the question of 

 partial extermination for the benefit of the race, or total 

 extermination by starvation, can no longer be delayed, 

 they assemble in countless thousands in some of the mount- 

 ain valleys leading into the plains, and, the vast army of 

 martyrs being selected, they pour across the country in a 

 straight line, a living stream, often exceeding a mile in 

 length and many yards in breadth, devouring every green 

 thing in their line of march, the country over which they 



