Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/341

 LEMHI LEMNOS 335 of the edict of Nantes threatening to deprive him of all means of subsistence, he united with the Catholic church in 1686. In 1699 he was admitted to the academy of sciences as associate member, and afterward as pensioner. His principal works, besides his lectures on chemis- try, are : PJiarmacopee universelle (Paris, 1697 ; 8th ed., 1763); Traite universel des drogues simples (1698, and several later editions); and Nouveau recueildes secrets et curiosites les plus rares (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1709). His son Louis (1677-1743) excelled as a physician and writer, as also his son JACQUES, known as Le- mery jeune (1678-1721). LEMHI, an E. county of Idaho, separated on the E. from Montana by the Eocky mountains ; area, 2,000 sq. in. ; pop. in 1870, 988, of whom 120 were Chinese. It is drained by the E. fork of Salmon river and by Eock creek. In 1870 there were 1 quartz and 7 placer gold mines. Capital, Salmon City. LEMMING, a small rodent of the subfamily armcolincB or field mice, and the genus myodes (Pallas) ; authors have also referred it to geo- rychus (111.), lemmus (Zinck), and Tiypudceus (111.). The lemmings may be distinguished from the arvicolas by the hairy soles, very short tail, long sickle-shaped claws for digging, and small size or absence of external ears ; the last lower molar has four or five triangular prisms alternating with each other. The spe- cies are confined to the arctic regions of both hemispheres, and are the most northern form of rodent known; of the North American species none have been found within the Uni- ted States ; they live in the thick mosses and sphagnous swamps in the vicinity of the arctic circle. The Norway lemming (M. lemmus, Pall.) has a stout body 5 in. long, a short and broad head, short and robust legs, and coarse Lemming (Myodes lemmus). bristly hair ; the whiskers are in five horizon- tal series ; the fore feet are provided with very long, stout, and fossorial claws, the third the longest, and the thumb rudimentary ; the hind feet short and broad, well armed with claws ; the short tail is densely coated with hah*. The 489 VOL. x. 22 dentition consists of incisors |::^, molars f if ; the skull is massive and broad, the orbits very large, the temporal fossae small, and the zygoma high ; the incisors are thick, large, and much rounded anteriorly. The color above is yel- lowish and reddish with black markings, and yellowish white below. Its natural habitat is the mountainous regions of Lapland and Nor- way, from which it descends at irregular in- tervals in immense troops, which devour every green thing in their course, and commit as great devastations as the migratory locusts ; it has been supposed that an unusual multiplica- tion of these animals and an actual or antici- pated scarcity of food impel them to these mi- grations. They move chiefly by night or early in the morning, proceeding obstinately in a direct line, swimming rivers, crossing moun- tains, and permitting nothing but an abso- lutely insurmountable obstacle to alter their straight course; many are destroyed by fire and water, by each other, and by rapacious beasts and birds. They are not disposed to live in society, but dwell in a scattered manner in holes in the ground ; they lay up no regular provision for the winter's use; they produce five or six young at a time, and it is said sev- eral times in a year; the flesh, which tastes like that of the squirrel, is eaten in Lapland. The food consists of plants, seeds, roots, and any vegetable matter that comes in their way. The best known American species is the Hudson bay lemming (M. torquatus, Keys, and Bias., or M. Hudsonius, Wagner), a cir- cumpolar animal, coming down as far as Lab- rador and more southward on the Pacific coast. There are no external ears, and the two middle claws of the fore feet are remark- ably large ; the color above is a mixed reddish brown and pale yellow, palest on the sides, be- neath whitish, whiskers black, and sometimes with a whitish collar edged with brown on both sides ; the color is white in winter, with a few black hairs interspersed. The length is about 5 in. ; the thumb is rudimentary on the fore feet, and the two middle toes appear to have double nails, as the callous end projects under the nail. It is an inoffensive animal, living in burrows in the ground or under stones, feeding on roots and similar substances. For details on the lemmings, see Sir John Eichardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana. LEMNOS (now Stalimni, Stalimene, or Lim- ni a Turkish island in the Grecian archipelago, situated about 40 m. W. S. W. of the Dardanelles, in lat. 40 N., Ion. 25 E. ; length 22 m., great- est breadth 20 m. ; area, 195 sq. m. ; pop. 10,000. Lemnos may be said to have been formed by the union of two peninsulas, the bay of Para- diso N. and that of Sant' Antonio S. almost dividing it into two parts. The surface is in general hilly, and the soil light. A considera- ble portion of the islanders are engaged in fish- ing. The capital, Castro or Limni (anc. Myri- na), stands on the W. coast, and is the residence of a Greek bishop and of the Turkish governor.