COMPOSITION OF THE MIGRATORY HORDES 79 



derfiil migrations amongst themselves, we will now follow the 

 little creatures on their weary pilgrimage. 



On leaving the fjalls, which M. Soderhjelm tells us is 

 always in the spring, they seem to diverge towards all points 

 of the compass : many direct their steps towards the North 

 Sea, or the Gulf of Bothnia ; some to the southward as 

 far as Wermeland ; whilst others again advance in a north- 

 easterly direction for the shores of the Icy Sea. So at 

 least it is affirmed by M. Malm, who assures me he 

 has there seen myriads of their skeletons. It is supposed 

 that they do not start in a body in the first instance, but 

 scattered and each for himself, somewhat in the manner 

 of a Jftgr are-Chain, and that they thus progress until some 

 natural obstacle intervenes and stops the early-comers, when 

 the first and succeeding columns are formed. 



Naturalists and others appear to be much in ignorance 

 as to the composition of these migratory hordes. Some 

 little light has been thrown on the subject, however, by 

 M. Soderhjelm, who, speaking of the migration in Dalecarlia 

 in 1823, says : " It is very remarkable that of the numbers 

 that then appeared in this province, neither young ones nor 

 pregnant females were observable. Hence it would seem 

 as if sexual connection ceased during their wanderings, or 

 that they had left their offspring to its fate immediately after 

 birth, or that they had bred in the forest which sepa- 

 rates Serna from the more inhabited parts of Dalecarlia, 

 whereby the opportunity of elucidating this matter was lost. 

 As in these periodical migrations the lemmings leave the 

 fjalls early in the spring, it is scarcely to be supposed that the 

 female brings forth her young prior to starting." 



According to the concurrent testimony of every one, the 



