1896.] SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE NORWAY LEMMING. 305 
~ Kola Peninsula, it does not seem to habitually appear so far east- 
ward as Archangel. Thus the present southern range of the 
animal does not extend below about 583° North latitude. We 
~. - know, however, that in recent geological times it had a mueh 
~ more southern distribution, extending at least as far as the south 
of England and Saxony, since its remains have been found in the 
_ Somersetshirecaves, six lower jaws from which, now in the 
Taunton Museum, were identified by Sandford’. These bones 
are said to be slightly smaller and to have the condyles more ~ 
‘slender than those of recent specimens, but to agree very closely 
with them, especially with the skulls of young animals’. The - 
~- only other locality where, so far as 1 am aware, the bones of. this 
~ species have been found is at Quedlinburg, in Saxony, where 
_.Hensel* found it, together with J. torquatus, in 1855, among fossils 
from the diluvium. The present discovery will therefore show 
that the range of the Norway Lemming extended formerly to at 
Sait... > Teast nearly the south of the Iberian Peninsula, and that, too, 
_ judging from the fresh appearance of the remains, in quite recent 
geological times. : 
The ‘present skulls resemble those of recent Lemmings very 
closely indeed, but, like the specimens found in the Somersetshire 
caves, they are smaller than those of large adult recent animals. 
alee I cannot, however, find any. characters sufliciently important to 
- enable me to separate the two specifically. 
ie In: conclusion, I should like to draw attention to the following 
= statement, which is to be found on pages 147.and 148 of Messrs, 
> Abel Chapman and W. J. Buck’s work on ‘ Wild Spain’ (chapter 
_» -_-xii.). Writing of Ibex-shooting in the Sierra de Grédos of Old 
_ _ Gastile, these authors remark :—“One day,.close to the snow- 
~ line, we came across a fat, blue-grey, little beastie, apparently of 
; the Dormouse tribe (Zzron, in Spanish), but he got. to earth, or 
~ “rather rock, ere we could capture him.” ‘This description is too 
“vague to enable me to do more than to make a suggestion, and » 
_ the suggestion that Lemmings exist in Spain at the present 
- day is too startling to be lightly brought forward; but I should 
‘like to point out that the description would apply very well to 
~» Myodes schisticolor—a species which (if it really be a good species) 
is, I believe, only pene from UM. lenmus by its bluish- ; 
_ grey colour, 
~ “At all events, in view of Dr. Gadow’s remarkable discovery of 
fresh-looking Lemming bones on comparatively low ground, it 
_’ would be interesting to know what is the true nature of the 
“fat, blue-grey, little beastie’’; and I venture to express a hope 
~ that this animal will be found to be a Lemming or a Vole, and 
© 1 W: A: Sandford, in Quart, Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xxvi. ast). Ze 125; 
_ pl. viii. fig. 3; and Dove, Somerset. Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. xv. (1870), p- 5 
LAD ta dh Blackmore ‘and E.R. Aston, i in P. Z. 8.1874, pp. 460-471. 
* Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesell: vii. (1855), pp. 488-501 ; also at Wolfen- 
~ piittel, A. “Nehring in Zeitschr. fir ges. Naturwis. Bd. xlv. (187 5), and in Kent, 
al gtd Newton, Geol, Mag. 1890, p. 452, and Quart. Journ. Geol, Soc. vol. 1. 
pe 188 (1899) 
