ja NATURAL HI STOR Y of NO RW A Y. 



hand when the weather is altering, according to the unalterable 

 laws of nature. 



S1C1.XI 



Lemming. Of the Norvegian quadrupedes, there is yet one left which 



may be referred to the clafs of rats and mice, it is called by fome 

 people Lamms ; by others, Lsemen, Lemming, or Lomhund f ; 

 in Lappifh, Lummick f in Swedifh, Fieldmuus, Rodmuus,, 

 Sabelmuus y and of fbme Latin writers, Mus Norvagicus, Norfk 

 Muus. Their original or native country, is the mountain or 

 rock of Kolen, in Lapland, belonging to the Swedes, as well as 

 to the Norvegian neighbouring provinces j and we find a Swedifh 

 writer, namely, Olaus Magnus, is the firft among us, who, in 

 his Hift. Septentr. L. xviii. c, 2.0. has given us any written ac- 

 counts of this aftonifhing and pernicious creature ; though no 

 more than what Gefher, in Icon animal. Cap. xvii. art. 2. has alio 

 related \ Jul. Csef Scalig. Exerc. 192. Seel:. 3. jac. Zieglero in 

 Defcript. Norveg. ad Caftra Bahuf. & johnftonis in Taumatogra- 

 phiee Clafle iv. cap. 8. as well as in Hift. Nat. Qnadruped. cap. 

 xviii. art. 3. has mentioned it: and the induftrious and learned 

 D06I:. O Wormius has thought it worthy to be illuftrated with 

 a Scriptum Monographon, entitled, Hiftoria Muris Norvagici vel 

 animalism quod e nubibus quandoque in Norvegia decidit, & fata 

 ac gramina magno incolarum detrimento celerrime depafcitur. 



It like wife ftaeds in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences? 

 In Sweden^ ad ann. 1740, Vol. i. p. 320. Hr. Linnaeus alio re- 

 marks on the Lemming, in his two lafl: particular writings, and 

 the univerfal report of the country confirms the fa£ta, things not 

 confident with reafbn only excepted. After this premonition I 

 fhall give a fhort extract, and leave it for others to amend \ for 

 this is the only way to attain, or make advancements in the 

 knowledge of nature, or to elucidate it by degrees. 



The Lemming's fhape and make, as Wormius L. C. represents 

 them in a print, (and I do not pretend to know any more, except 

 from their {kins, of which I have feen many) is in part like a 

 moufe, and part like a rat, excepting that the tail is very fhort, 

 about a thumb's length, and a little turn'd up at the end ; the 

 legs are very fhort, and icarce appear to keep the belly from the 

 ground ; the head and mouth are like a field moufe, with very 

 long and large whiikers, confifting of about half a icore long hairs 



•f Lse Iflandis & Norvegis noxa vel damnum eft. Lasminge illis difti funt mures 

 noxii fegetibus, Norvegis peculiare.s, quos coelo decidiffe, & per agrss difperfos alicubi 

 ©bviarunt. O. Sperling in Notis adTeflam, Abfalonis, No. 78, p. 147, 



on 



