LEMMINGS' DEATH MARCH

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1051, 15 August 1930, Page 13

LEMMINGS' DEATH MARCH

RODENT HORDE MIGRATES FROM MOUNTAINS TO PERISH IN ATLANTIC The lemmings of Norway have started their suicidal march to the sea I Countless numbers of rodents have j left the pine belts in the regions of i the Kjolen range to perish in the At- ! lantic before the migration ends, j This march of the lemmings means ruin to the crops of the peasants who scratch a living from the soil that stretches from the Kjolen foothills to the coast. For the lemmings, like the 17-year locusts, devour all vegetation in the pgth of their death pil grimage. Their migrations, occurring at irregular intervals of from five to twenty years, are somewhat like the movements of the locusts, except that no one can tell what year will be a lemming year. The lemmings are zoological mys teries. What impulse sends them to destruction by the millions has never been revealed to science. Without warning the mice-like-creatures descend from the mountains and form a living blanket from the foothills .to the coast. Birds and predatory animals destroy them in great numbers when the march begins, the peasants take heavy toll of their ranks, and other agencies account for many more, but the procession keeps on to meet death. They march at night. When morning comes they vanish and remain in hiding until darkness falls; then the j platoons fall again into line and the rodent horde steadfastly resumes the trek toward death in the sea. Some times the migration covers the span of a year, sometimes it is longer. Then suddenly the pilgrimage ends The lemmings disappear as if the earth had opened to receive them. No one sees them retreat to the moun tains from which they came, but they are gone. Meanwhile millions have reached their voal and have cast themselves recklessly into the Atlartic, while other millions have fallen prey to the owls, foxes, hawks, wolves and other i camp followers. The rest remain to breed new generations of lemmings j that some day must heed the -call to death.

The Scandinavian species is the only one that hears the. compelling command to march to death In the sea. There are other species in the Hudson Bay district, in Siberia and in some of the mid-Western States of America, but they round out their lives in a natural way. The Norwegian lemming is a more courageous beast than his fellow lemmings of North America and Asia. If he is molested he will squeal like the guinea pig he somewhat resembles and will spring at his tormentor with short, savage leaps, biting viciously. He is a creature of nocturnal habits. By day he sits drowsily near his binrow in the peat hogs on the plateaux of the Kjolen range, and by night he darts nervously about seeking moss, dwarf birch, young roots and grass for sustenance. When the lemming reaches the adult stage he is never mqre than five or six inches long, including his oneinch tail. His fur is a brownish yellow, with dark spots. The other species are somewhat similar. The one exception is lemming, which changes its coat of brown for a snow-white garment in winter, of the Auckland Province No-licence Council. He was the very live president of the Eden No-licence - League when prohibition was carried in that electorate. When no-licence was carried in Ohinemuri, and when an attempt was made by the Continuance party to restore licence by' legal action, it was Mr. Spragg who rallied the prohibition forces to a successful contest in the courts. Mr. Spragg was president of the New Zealand Alliance for seven years from 1908 to 1914. During (hat term he was influential in moulding the legislative policy of the alliance. He had made many generous gifts to the City of Auckland, most notable of which was d fine park of 761 acres overlooking the Manukan Harbour. Kaitarakihe Park was presented to the city in 1918 by Mr. Spragg. who erected in the grounds a handsome granite obelisk to the memory of his son. Lieutenant Neil Spragg. and of others who fell in the Great War. Another gift to the city was a particularly fine area of bush, presented in 1928. He is survived by his wife.