The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-12-22
A Curious Fact In Natural History.

The Lemming multiplies so rapidly that In
the course OF ten or twelve seasons food be-
comes scarce, ard on the approach of so ne
winter when the food question has become
one of life or death. the over-stocked market
is relieved by all expedient unparalleled in its
nature among tour-footed animals. This sing
ular little creature is so local inits habits that,
unless under the circumstances we are about
to narrate, tnever leaves the mountain re-
gion TO establish, itself oil the plains, where
food is more abundant. Tie iuhuman sug-
gestion ei a modern writer that orr paupers
shonld be packed into II tim ships, which
should be sent out to sea and sculted. Il
something like the method adopted by them
selves, to avert the fannie which theatens to
annihilate the entire species.
When the time for the benefit of the race.
or tota! determination Tor the benefit of the
race, or total extermination by starvation
can no longer be delayed, they assemble in
countless thousands in some of the mountain
passes leading into the plains, and the vast
army OF martyrs being selected they pour
across the country in straight line, a Living
stream, often exceeding uile in length and
many yards in breadth, devouring every green
thing in their line OF march, the country o,-
er which they have passed looking as if it had
been plowed or burned with fire. Tbey
march principally by night and in the morn
ing. resting during the dav, but never to set
tie in any particulay locality, however atunC-
ant foo0 may be III {, Tor their final destina
tion is the distant sea, and nolhing animate
or inanimate. if it can be surmounted, re-
tards tie straight onward tide OF IT, cir ad-
vance. When the reindeer gets euveloped in
the living stream, they will not even go round
its limbs, but bite its legs until, in its agony
and terror, it plunges madly about, crushing
them TO death in hundreds, and even killing
them with its teeth. If a man attempts to
stem the living torrent, they leap upon his
legs, and If he lay about him with a stick
they seize it with their teeth and hold on to
it with such determined pertinaci:y that he
mayswing it rapidly round his heal without
compelling them to loosen their hold. If a
corn or hay rick be in the way, they eat their
way through it,aI on arriving at Tie smooth
face of a rock, they pass round it, forming up
in close column again on the other side.
Lakes, however broad, are boldly entered
and the passage attempted, and rivers, how
ever deep and rapid, are forded imped ments
in the water being as boldly faced as those on
shore. They have been known to pass over
boat and to climb on to the deck of ship,
passing without stop or stay into the water
on the further side Their natural instincts
are not in sbeyance during this migration as
females are frequently seen accompanied by
their young, and carrying in their teeth some
one which has succumbed to the fatipues of
the march, which might not be stayed until
the helpless one was recruited. Foxes, lynxes,
weazles, kites, owls, etc., hover on their line
OF march, and destroy them in hundreds.
The fish in the rivers and lakes lay heavy
toll upon them, and vast numbers are drown
ed. and die by other accidents in ''hood and
feld;' but the survivors, impeIled by some ir.
resistible instinct, press onward with no
thought of stopping, until they lose themselves
in the sea, sinking in its depths as they be-
come exhausted, in such IumJers that for
miles their bodies, thrown up by the tide, lie
putrefyng on the store. Comparatively few
ever return to their native haunts, but there
can be no doubt that some do so, as they have
been seen on the return, pursuing their back
ward journey in the same fearless and de-
termined manner as their advance. Temple
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