32 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



any one ftrike at them with with a ftick, they will "bite at it, in 

 the manner of a dog. Thefe vermin prognofticate a bad harveft 

 where-ever they take their courfe ; but, in return, the country- 

 man expects good hunting, or fport, of the bear, fox, maar, and 

 feveral other large animals, which follow thefe creatures \ to 

 whom they are delicious food. All this is eftablilhed by, and 

 may be believed from common report, and the teftimony of many 

 underftanding and honeft perfbns, who have made nice obferva-* 

 tions on thefe creatures ; fo that their hiftory being fo far certain, 

 Fail from the there remains one thing dubious, which is this ; whether it is to be 

 believed that the Lemmingerne, according to common report, do 

 fall down out of the air 3 which many, both in thefe and former 

 times, will pretend to lay they have feen with their own eyes. 

 Wormjus, Scaliger, and other great men, do not fuppofe this 

 to be impoffible : they imagine that the Lemming, like frogs, 

 and other fmall creatures, may, in their embrios, be attracted to 

 the clouds, and being then come to maturity, may drop down. 

 Cum igitur tot animalium genera in nubibus generata, pluviis 

 decidifTe, fide dignorum autorum conftet teftimoniis quidni & 

 hsec eodem modo generata in nubibus ftatuamus ? L. C. 

 P- # 33- t To reconcile this ft range account to reafon, others- 

 think it more probable, that the fogs, which fometimes are 

 feen extremely thick upon the mountains, may lift them up 

 in multitudes, and carry them away to other places, where it is 

 but of late time they have ever been heard of. This Hr. Linnaeus 

 believes as much, as that the fame fog is able to take up a Finlap 

 with his Reenfdeer, and carry him away; a notion which the 

 common people really have in that country. However, the afore- 

 faid philofopher does not tell us, in the place of this which he 

 explodes, any other way that feems more probable for their being 

 brought to us. If we won't deny all hiftoric faith which de- 

 clares for their coming from the air, I will venture to give my 

 opinion, to which Hr. Lucas Debes's agreement gives fome 

 farther confirmation : in his Defcription of Faeroernes, p. 13, he 

 defcribes a fort of whirl- wind, called Oes, which elevates up, or 

 draws up fometimes a whole laft of herrings out of the fea, and 

 throws them on the rocks. Such an effecl: or power the Finlaps 

 allow to a thick fog : concerning the Oes I have already fpoken 

 largely, Cap. 1. §. ult. P. 1. 



And, in confirmation of this opinion, it is to be obferved, 

 however, that fome are found on the rocks, which appear to be 

 ftruck dead by their fall ; alfb that none in this country have 



ever 



