3108 Quadrupeds. 



they see an intruder appear on the dominions which they have appro- 

 priated to themselves; now thrusting out a well- whiskered black nose, 

 and a still blacker pair of little bright sparkling eyes, from behind 

 some sheltering stone whither they have retreated in alarm, but whence 

 their curiosity urges them to venture on a peep at their foe ; now 

 scampering away, and burying themselves deep down and far in 

 among the loose stones which seem to form a honeycomb in the sur- 

 face of the mountain for their special behoof; the lemmings are a con- 

 stant source of wonder and amusement to the traveller, as he chances 

 to cross a wild fjeld on which they happen at that time to be. Their 

 presence, too, in these lonely and barren tracts, so far removed from 

 all signs of man and his works of cultivation, imparts a feeling of so- 

 ciety to the traveller, who hails them with joy, as serving to break the 

 monotony of his dreary journey, and who delights to hear their angry 

 cries and fierce squeakings, as pleasing contrasts to the uniform si- 

 lence which reigns around. 



It is strange what different effects the cries of various animals will 

 have upon the mind, in the same or similar places. I have already 

 remarked how painfully mournful it was to listen to the note of the 

 golden plover, even on the hushed fjeld, when no other sound was to 

 be heard; and how no less pleasing to hear the loud hoarse crowing 

 and the prolonged guttural notes of the ptarmigan under the same 

 circumstances : and as with birds, so with animals, the cries of some 

 inspire us with feelings of delight, those of others with melancholy. 

 As an instance of this, I shall never forget the effect of dreariness, 

 and desolation, and mournfulness, produced by the shrill and start- 

 ling whistle of the marmot, w T hich occasionally broke the stillness 

 of the scene in the midst of the most stupendous scenery in Switzer- 

 land, when T w r as crossing the Mer de Glace to the oasis of verdure 

 in the midst of the ice called the " Jardin," at the back of Mont Blanc; 

 while here, on the contrary, in the same kind of wild dreary scenery, 

 the squeak of the little lemming, inharmonious though it was, always 

 produced a sensation of pleasure in my mind. It seemed to speak of 

 life, and happiness, and sociability, even in these dreary fjelds, and 

 dissolved the spell of awe and melancholy that so naturally oppresses 

 the spirits in such stern savage scenes of stillness, the very throne of 

 grim silence. But it is not from the locale in which they are found, 

 that the lemmings have become the subjects of so much marvellous 

 fable, though this may be one remote cause of it, as their habits are 

 little investigated in consequence ; it is rather from their irregular ap- 

 pearance and sudden disappearance, and from the countless numbers 



