342 THE YOUTHS CABINET.

SS
h
S
- mi
a ‘
eS

Vy,
ij

4
=

iy)!

Wye
AAP fi
iy M
, iy

 

Anecdotes of the Squirrel Family.

ocounts are given of the ingenuity

of the squirrels in Lapland, which

we should find it difficult to be-

lieve, were they not credited by
such men as Linnzeus, on whose authority
I give them to my readers. It seems
that the squirrels in that country are in
the habit of emigrating, in large parties,
and that they sometimes travel hundreds
of miles in this way. When they meet
with broad, rapid lakes in their journeys,
they take a very extraordinary method of
erossing them. They approach the banks,
and, perceiving the distance between them
and the opposite shore, they return, as if
by common consent, into the neighboring
forest, each in search of a piece of bark,
or light wood, which answers in the room
of a boat, to ferry them over. When the
whole company are provided in this man-
ner, they boldly commit their fleet to the
waves, each squirrel sitting on his own English publication, about a squirrel who
little boat, and fanning the air with his | was charmed by 4 rattle-snake. The sub-
tail, in order to drive himself across. In | stance of the story was something like

this orderly manner they set out, and of-
ten cross lakes several miles broad in this
way. It occasionally happens, however,
as you may Suppose, that the poor mari-
ners are not aware of all the dangers of
the voyage; for though at the edge of
the water it is generally calm, in the mid-
dle it is always more rough. Sometimes
the poor squirrels encounter such a gale
before they get across the lake, that nearly
all their vessels are capsized, and they are
shipwrecked. “ It is an ill wind which
blows no one any good,” however ; and
this shipwreck, so disastrous*to the squir-
rel family, is a matter of great rejoicing
on the part of the Laplander on shore.
He gathers up the dead bodies, as they
are thrown on shore by the waves, eats
the flesh, and sells the skins.

I read an interesting story, 4 little while
ago, in the “ Centlemar’s Magazine,” a0