58 
LEM M US. 
body arc black and tawny, disposed in irregular 
blotches ; its belly is white, tinged with yellow ; 
its length is about five inches ; its tail one and a 
half. Those of Russian Lapland are much less 
than those of the. Norwegian or Swedish. They 
appear in numberless troops, at very uncertain 
periods, in Norway and Lapland, and are at once 
the pest and wonder of the country. They march, 
like the army of locusts so emphatically described 
by the prophet Joel, destroy every root of grass 
before them, and spread universal desolation. 
They seem to be endowed w ith a power of dis- 
tinguishing the approach of severe weather ; for 
before the setting in of a cold w inter, they leave 
their haunts in the above countries, and emigrate 
in immense multitudes southwards towards Swe- 
den, always endeavouring to keep a direct line. 
These emigrations take place at uncertain intervals, 
though generally about once every ten years ; and, 
exposed as the travellers are to attack, they of 
course become the food of all the predacious animals. 
Multitudes also are destroyed in endeavouring to 
swim over the rivers or lakes. From these differ- 
ent causes, very few of them live to return to 
their native mountains ; and thus a check is put 
to their ravages, as an interval of several years is 
necessary to repair their numbers sufficiently for 
another invasion. They are bold and fierce, and 
will even attack men and animals, if they meet 
them in their course ; and they bite so bard, as to 
allow* themselves to be carried to a considerable 
distance hanging by their teeth, before they will 
quit their hold. 
If they are disturbed or pursued while swim- 
ming over a lake, and their phalanx is separated 
by oars or poles, they will not recede ; but keep 
swimming directly on, and soon get into regular 
order again. They have sometimes been knowsa 
