292 
SGIUIRREL. 
circumstance in their favour, it frequently happens 
that the whole navy is shipwrecked ; for the poor 
little mariners are not aware of their danger, and are 
so badly provided against a rough wave, or a slight 
gust of wind, that they are overset in a moment. 
The dead bodies are thrown by thousands on the 
Lapland shore, where the inhabitants collect them 
for the sake of their flesh and skins. 
In North America the squirrels commit the great- 
est ravages on the plantations of maize. The da- 
mage they do the planters is incredible. Hundreds 
of them will come into a field, climb up the stalks, 
and eat the sweet corn which is wrapped up in 
the heads : thus in one night they will destroy that 
crop which it has cost the poor farmer so much to 
raise. They are said to swarm in several of the pro- 
vinces, and often descend in troops from the 
mountains, clearing the ground as they go of the 
fallen acorns, nuts, and beech mast, making maga- 
zines of the overplus for their winter provisions, in 
holes which they dig under ground for that purpose. 
Their hoards, however, frequently fall a prey eith- 
er to the hogs or the colonists, who seem equally 
anxious to discover them. On these magazines they 
place all their dependence, and frequently quit their 
nests to visit them, always returning with a suf- 
ficient quantity of provisions to last them for some 
time. During the winter this appears to be their 
only employment, as in that season they do not 
choose to quit their warm habitations, unless com- 
pelled by necessity. Whenever they are observed 
