CHAPTER V. 



THE LEMMING TWO SPECIES HIS ECONOMY DEVOURED BY REIN-DEER 

 VENOMOUS HE FALLS FROM THE CLOUDS PERIODICAL MIGRATIONS 

 EXPERT SWIMMERS LIVING PONTOONS PUGNACITY RAVAGES SUICIDE 

 RETURN TO THE FJALLS. 



MOST of the Rat family common to Scandinavia were 

 found in the Ronmim country. The Lemming was an 

 exception, however ; for though abounding in the more 

 northern parts of the peninsula, it never, I believe, even 

 during its periodical migrations, wandered farther to the 

 southward than Wermeland. As this singular little animal 

 has of late years greatly excited the attention of naturalists 

 and others, I cannot perhaps do better than devote a chapter 

 descriptive of its habits, migratory and otherwise. 



Until very recently it was supposed there was only one 

 species of lemming (Fjall-Lemmel, Sw. ; Lemmus Norve- 

 gicus, Worm.) in Scandinavia ; and that, as the name would 

 denote, confined to the higher of the mountain ranges. But 

 of late years naturalists imagine they have discovered a 

 second species dwelling in wooded districts, which, according 



