232 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Romsdalen and crossed the mountains from Holseth 

 to Lom, without seeing anything of the lemmings, 

 except a few skins which a tourist had brought from 

 the Fille-fjeld, where large numbers of them had 

 appeared. From Lom I passed up Bsevredal to 

 Brevertun ; and while walking thence (about the 

 middle of August) over the grand, but desolate region 

 of the Sogne-fjeld to Optun, I got for the second 

 time, the first on this tour, a momentary glance at a 

 lemming ; nor did I see one other, though I passed 

 over another mountain range to the Justedal glaciers, 

 till I had crossed the Sogne-fjord and landed at 

 Lrerdalsoren, where a few dead bodies of lemmings, 

 which had probably descended from the Fille-fjeld, 

 were strewn upon the ground. 



The Fille-fjeld lies to the east of Lserdalsoren ; 

 but, on leaving this village, I took, as on the former 

 tour, a south-westerly direction, rising over the 

 southern extension of the lofty Blaa-fjeld, and 

 descending to Urland, by the almost trackless route 

 I had followed before, but with a long line of 

 telegraph posts to guide me over the desolate waste. 

 Starting rather late in the afternoon, I reached at 

 seven my resting-place for the night, a wretched 

 sreter hut, little more than a heap of rough stones 

 and earth, high up on the cold, misty and dreary 

 mountain plateau. So far the route had been as 

 clear of lemmings as I had previously found it 

 throughout ; but next morning, about two miles 

 beyond the hut, after wading a wide, but shallow 

 stream, I came upon them in swarms. While quietly 

 seated, resuming my stockings and shoes, I presently 

 saw them in all directions ; running in and out of 

 their holes among the stones ; swimming across the 

 river ; nibbling the herbage, especially a small, 

 tender, succulent leaf, and approaching so near to 

 my feet that I could have seized them with my hand, 

 though they scampered off if I moved. During the 

 remainder of my walk to Urland, I must have seen 

 some thousands of them ; and after leaving Urland 

 for Vossevangen, by way of Flaam, through Kaar- 

 dalen and Rundsdal, I continued to see them in 

 diminished numbers till after I had passed into the 

 latter valley. At one place, where, having missed 

 the way, to regain it I rose over elevated crags, I 

 saw a small flock of the little creatures in a hollow 

 below me, running about upon extensive beds of icy 

 snow. Between Romsdal, Vossevangen and Gravdal 

 on the Hardanger-fjord, I quite missed the lem- 

 mings ; nor did I see any again till I got to Utne on 

 the same fjord ; at which place they had made their 

 appearance, I was told, eight days before. On 

 leaving Utne (Sept. 2nd) in a small boat, for Odde, at 

 the extremity of the fjord, a lemming passed the 

 boat, swimming in a direct line, having apparently 

 come from the opposite side, distant about a mile, 

 and was making for the shore ; but a few others we 

 passed, were swimming about for no apparent pur- 

 pose. From Odde I passed into the Thelemark, by 



way of Roldal and Haukelid-fjeld ; chiefly on 

 mountain tracks, the present road having been made 

 since ; and on all the route I met with lemmings 

 more or less, though not very numerously till I had 

 passed Roldal and had approached the flanks of the 

 Haukelid. Within the Thelemark also, as I pro- 

 ceeded through Grungedal, they continued plentiful ; 

 squeaking among the bushes, running incessantly 

 across the road, here and there swimming in the 

 lakes, and angrily jerking their little bodies as I 

 passed — the young ones being quite as saucy as their 

 progenitors. By the middle of September a great 

 number of drowned lemmings lined the margin of the 

 Tinsjo, near Ornres, and many more, as I saw during 

 my passage in a row-boat down the lake, were 

 drifting on the water ; and next year I learnt, that 

 later in the autumn the lake was quite blackened 

 with their drowned carcases. A similar swarm, the 

 boatmen said, had thus drowned themselves twelve 

 years before. A week afterwards, having meantime 

 visited Hiterdal, Kongsberg, Drammen, and Modum, 

 I passed in a wood not far from Vigersund the bodies 

 of a few lemmings which had been killed, serving to 

 show that they had begun to arrive so far to the 

 south-east ; but I find a remark in my note book, 

 that I had not for some time past met with them on 

 my way. 



In August of the following year, 1S63, I took 

 another tour of the Thelemark, landing at Arendal 

 and passing northwards through Nisserdal to the 

 Bandak's Vand ; then circuiting round to the Totak's 

 Vand, the Mjos Vand, the Ruikan Fos, and througb 

 Vestfjorddal to Ornses on the Tinsjo again. On the 

 former tour, it will be remembered, I tracked the 

 lemmings in Thelemarken, all the way from Roldal 

 to this point, where they had begun to appear, I was 

 told, in the autumn of 1861. Now I found them 

 numerously near Arendal, on the south-east coast, 

 and continued to meet with them in decreasing 

 numbers as far as Haugsjaasund, near the foot of the 

 Nisser lake, where, or thereabouts, they finally 

 disappeared, and I did not see one other lemming 

 during the remainder of the tour ; but, on arriving at 

 Christiania, I learnt that some time before a swarm of 

 them had advanced into the grounds of the palace, 

 and even into the streets of the city. 



Passing into Sweden, I had several tours, as in 

 Norway chiefly on foot, through Dalecarlia, Werm- 

 land and part of Norrland, before gaining sight of a 

 single lemming. When at N&s, in West Dalecarlia, 

 the pastor informed me that fifteen years had elapsed 

 since the lemmings had paid them a visit ; and I 

 learnt from a Swedish lady that she had never seen a 

 lemming in her life, till once, during a twelve-years' 

 residence at Slattne on the Klar river, quite in the 

 north of Wermland, she was astonished by seeing a 

 great swarm of them pass southwards by the house, 

 extending down the hill as far as could be seen. 

 They moved straight forwards, and would not turn 



