ON THE MAMMALIA OF THIS DISTRICT. 237 



Cape, all well suited to their habits. Hundreds of 

 thousands of lemmings might be scattered over 

 its surface, and yet need not live in colonies ; but 

 the cause of these irregular migrations is and pro- 

 bably always will be, a secret known only to an 

 All- wise Creator, who, we may rest assured, has 

 ordained nothing in vain. In my opinion, much 

 exaggeration and useless mystery have been used 

 by those writers who have described these migra- 

 tions (to say nothing of the palpable lies gravely 

 uttered by the older writers) ; and I can see little 

 more wonderful in them (save that their numbers 

 are much greater) than the uncertain migrations, 

 without any apparent cause, of the squirrels in 

 this very country, the opossums in Australia, and 

 of many other animals. They sometimes in these 

 migrations travel very far south, for in 1819 they 

 appeared in the neighbourhood of Carlstad, in 

 Wermland, where none had been seen for a 

 hundred years. 



I should much like to know whether the lem- 

 ming has ever been kept alive in confinement. 

 They have an idea here that this would be impos- 

 sible, and that if two were put into the same cage, 

 they would inevitably fight till one or both were 

 killed. 



I never met with either the common brown 

 rat (Mus decumanus, Pall.) or the black rat (Mus 



