AN EPISODE ON RATS. 347 



passage attempted ; and rivers, however deep and rapid, are forded, 

 impediments in the water being as boldly faced as those on shore. 

 They have been known to pass over a boat, and to climb on to the 

 deck of a ship, passing, without stop or stay, into the water on the fur- 

 ther side. 



Their natural instincts are not in abeyance during this migration, 

 as females are frequently seen accompanied by their young, and carry- 

 ing in their teeth some one which had succumbed to the fatigues of 

 the march, which might not be stayed until the helpless one was re- 

 cruited. 



Foxes, lynxes, weasels, kites, owls, etc., hover on their line of march 

 and destroy them in hundreds. The fish in the rivers and lakes lay a 

 heavy toll upon them, and vast numbers are drowned, and die by other 

 accidents in " flood and field ; " but the survivors, impelled by some irre- 

 sistible instinct, press onward with no thought of stopping, until they 

 lose themselves in the sea, sinking in its depths, as they become ex- 

 hausted, in such numbers that for miles their bodies, thrown up by the 

 tide, lie putrefying on the shore. Comparatively few ever return to 

 their native haunts, but there can be no doubt that some do so, as they 

 have been seen on the return, pursuing their backward journey in the 

 same fearless and determined manner as their advance. 



The peasants witness this dread incursion with terror. Until lately 

 they believed, that the vast horde was rained from heaven as a punish- 

 ment for their sins, and during the time of their passage they used to 

 assemble in the churches, the priests reciting prayers specially com- 

 posed for such visitations. It was also believed that the reindeer ate 

 them, and that they so poisoned the ground they passed over that they 

 would not eat on it for a considerable time. As we have seen, the 

 reindeer bites them with its teeth in its agony and terror, and the 

 complete sweep they make of every blade of grass on their line of 

 march satisfactorily accounts for its declining for a time to graze 

 upon it. 



A recent writer tells us that, in addition to this wholesale migra- 

 tion, which takes place about twice during a quarter of a century, 

 smaller migrations occur, in which many are killed, while others live 

 to return to their haunts ; but as there are several species of lemmings 

 spread over the northern regions of both the Old and the New World, 

 he may allude to another variety than the one we have been dealing 

 with, which is the Mus lemmus of Linnaeus and Pallas. 



The superstitious notions and wonderful reports once prevalent 

 with regard to the lemming, as recorded by old writers, are not with- 

 out interest. Olaus Magnus says : 



"In the foresaid Helsingia, and provinces that are near to it, in the diocese 

 of Upsal, small beasts with four feet, that they callLeramar or Lemmus, as big 

 as a rat, with a skin diverse-colored, fall out of the ayr in tempests and sudden 

 storms ; but no man knows from whence they come — whether from the re- 



