236 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND, 



so much as the lemming ; they really seem to 

 court destruction ; for when you pass by one hidden 

 under a tree, stone, or tuft of grass, instead of 

 lying still and unnoticed, the little lemming im- 

 mediately sends forth a challenge by uttering a 

 shrill squeaking bark, and, facing its enemy, gives 

 battle even unto death. If the bear had only half the 

 savage pluck of these little creatures there would 

 be no living in the north ; and this is not a habit 

 acquired by age, for the young ones do just the 

 same ; and if you only point a stick at one, it will 

 seize the end of it Vith its teeth, and is with diffi- 

 culty shaken off. But in the summer, when the 

 ground is clearer and places of concealment are 

 more easily reached than in the winter, they appear 

 to become much more timid, and it is not nearly 

 so easy to kill them. I think I never saw an 

 animal that is so easily killed; the least blow 

 from the smallest switch will kill them in an 

 instant. Much conjecture has been hazarded as to 

 where all these lemmings have their native home ; 

 and some suppose that one certain high fell range 

 in the north is the matrix of the swarms that oc- 

 casionally come down. But I cannot see why one 

 particular fell tract more than another is to be 

 assigned as their peculiar home, when we see that 

 there are hundreds of miles of wild unexplored 

 fell tract, from the south of Lapland to the North 



