The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1874-01-22
A Curious Fact in Natural History.

The Lemming multiplies 80 rapidly
that in the course of ten or twelve sea-
sous food becomes scarce, and on the ap-
proach of some Winter when the food
question has become one of life or death,
the over stocked market is relieved by an
expedient unparalleled in its nature
among four footed animals. This singular
little creature is so local in its habits,
that, unless under the circumstances we
are about to narrate, it never, leaves the
mountain regions to establish itself on the
plains, where food is more abundant.
The inhuman suggestion of modern wri,
ter that our paupers should be packed
into rotten ships, which should be sent
out to sea and scuttled, is something like
the method adopted by the Lemmings
themselves, to avert the famine which
threatens to annihilate the entire species.
When the time for the sediment of the
question of partial extermiuation for 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 valleys leading in
to the plains. and the vast army of mar
tyrs being selected, they pour across the
country in a straight line, living stream,
often exceeding a mile in length and
many yards in breadth, devouring every
green thing in their line Of march, the
country over which they have passed
looking as il it had been plowed or burned
with fire. They march principally by
night and in the morning, resting the
day, but never seek to shelter in any par
ticular locality; however abundant food
may be it, for their final destination is
the distant sea, and nothing animate or
inanimate, if it can be surmounted, re-
tards the straight onward tide of their ad-
vance. When the reindeer gets envelop
ed in the living stream, they will not
even 60 round its limbs, but bite its legs
until, in its agony and terror, it plunges
mad!y about crushing them to death in
hundreds, and even killing them with its
teeth. If man attempts to stem the liv-
ing torrent they leap upon his legs, and
if he lay about him with stick they
seize it with their teeth, and hold on to
it with such determined partinacity that
he may swing it rapidly round his head
without compelling them to loosen their
hold. Ifa corn or hay rick be ip the
way they sat their way through it, and
on arriving at the smooth face of 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 /; rivers, however
deep aud rapid, are forded, impediments
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 a ship. passing without stop or
stay into the water on the further side.
Their natural instincts are not in abey-
ance during this migration, as females
are frequently seen accompanied by their
young and carrying in their teeth some
one which had succumbed to the fatigues
of the march, which might not be stayed
until the helpless one was recruited. Fox
es, lynxes, weasels, kites, owls, &c, hover
on ther line of march and destroy them
in hundreds The fish in the rivers and
lakes lay heavy toll upon them, and
vast numbers are drowned aud die by
other accidents in "hood and field but
the survivors, impelled by some irresisti
Bile 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 numbers that
for miles their bodies, thrown up by the
tide, lie putrefying on the shore. Com
paratively 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 backward
journey in the same fearless and deter
mined manner as their advance Temple
Bar.