Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-01-22
A Curious Fact in Natural History.

The Lemming multiplies so rapidly
that IN the course of ten or twelve seasons
1000 becomes scarce, and on the approach
OF some winter when the food question
has become one of life or death, the over
| stocked marked is relieved by an expe-
0lent unparalleled in its nature among
fourfooted animals. This singular little
| creature is so local in its habits, that, I'M
less under the circumstances we are
ABOUT to narrate, it never leaves the noun
tain regions to establish itselfon the plains,
where food is more abundant. The in
human suggestion of a modern writer
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 Jennings them
selves, to avert the famines which threat
ems to annihilate the entire species.
When the time for the settlement of the
question of partial determination by star
walton can no longer be delayed, they
assemble in countless thousands in some
OF the mountain valleys leading
into the plains and the vast army of mar
tyrs being selected, they pour across the
country in 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 If it had been plowed or burn
ed with fire. They march principally by
night and IN the morning, resting during
the day, but never seek to settle in any
particular locality, however abundant
food may be in it, for their final destina-
ton is the distant sea, and nothing ami
mate or inanimate if it can be surmount-
ed, retards the straight, onward tide of
their advance. When the reindeer gets
envelOped 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 man attempts to stem
the living 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 pertinacity that he
may swing it rapidly round his head with
out compelling them to loosen their hold.
If a corn or hay rick be in the way, they
eat 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,
and the passages attempted, and
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
ship, passing without stop or stay into
the water on the further side. Their nat
ural instincts are not in allegiance 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 Foxes, lynxes,
weasels, kites, owls, ETC.. hover on their
line of march and destroy them in hun
dreds. The fish in the rivers and lakes
lay heavy toll upon them, and vast
numbers are drowned, and die by other
accidents in flood and field" but the
survivors, impelled by some irresistibl
instinct, press onward with no thought of
stopping, until they lose themselves in the
sea, sinking in its depth as they become
exhausted, in such numbers that for miles
their bodies. thrown up by the tide, lie
putrefying on the shore. 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 backward journey in the
same fearless and determined manner as
their advance.-Ie1apLe Bar.