MIGRATION OF THE LEMMING. 79 



long wooden box was made expressly for the lemmings, 

 and this was properly strapped beneath the carriole. 

 The result was not encouraging ; the little animals 

 died off, one after the other, and when in sight of 

 Christiania, a sole survivor remained. My friend, dis- 

 appointed at his want of success, very unkindly killed 

 the surviving lemming, assigning a somewhat Irish 

 reason for his cruelty, " If the lemming had been 

 two, I would have kept them to breed from ; but as they 

 were only one, I killed it." It is not surprising that 

 the enterprise failed, when undertaken by a gentleman 

 so deficient in grammar, logic, and patience. Another 

 friend in Norway informed me that he had frequently 

 captured lemmings in the fjeld, and had carefully 

 transported them to his house, where they invariably 

 died ; they are, in fact, such tender little creatures, 

 that a rough grasp of the hand, or a slight blow of any 

 kind, will cause them to sicken and die. 



The migration of the lemming from the north occurs 

 at uncertain periods. Sometimes they migrate for 

 several successive years, while sometimes an interval 

 of ten or twelve years elapses between their migrations. 

 Some persons assert that the migration is caused by 

 the little creatures knowing instinctively that the 

 coming winter will be unusually severe. If such were 

 the case, why is it that the lemmings migrate in the 

 spring, and not in the fall of the year ? Others assert 

 that the migration is caused by an unusually severe 

 winter, which so hardens the snow that the lemmings 

 cannot work into it to get their requisite food, and so 

 they abandon the inhospitable region in search of fresh 

 pastures and a more genial climate. Perhaps the true 

 cause of the migration is, that instinct teaches these 



