656 MR. T. T. SOMERVILLE ON THE LEMMING. [DeC. 1, 



pve> whole provinces. Usually the mountain-pastures and high- 

 lying farms are the first to suffer, and it is positively asserted that 

 the crops on such farms have been entirely eaten off, and that even 

 in the more generally cultivated valleys the loss to the farmers is 

 frequently very serious. 



The numbers that take part in these migrations have been 

 estimated at many millions, and there are most extraordinary stories 

 told to show bow, on these occasions, the Lemming-host goes 

 straight forward, climbing over or burrowing under every obstacle 

 and never diverging from its course. How far these stories are 

 reliable we will not venture to consider, but it is quite certain that 

 the Lemmings unhesitatingly attempt to cross streams too rapid and 

 lakes too wide for them to swim across, and that they tumble into 

 holes, wells, and brooks, the sides of which are too steep for them 

 to scramble out of again, so that, frequently, people are at a loss to 

 obtain water that is not polluted by their bodies. Doubtless this 

 accounts for an epidemic, popularly termed " Lemming fever," that 

 is said to prevail after the migration and which is described as 

 resembling ordinary typhoid. 



The Lemmings never return from their exodus. Those that 

 reach the coast alive are said to swim straight away to sea ; and this 

 may be the case on the west coast, towards which, naturally enough 

 from the geographical formation of the country, the majority direct 

 their march. On the coast-line between Christiania and the 

 southernmost point the Lemmings are certainly not always so pre- 

 cipitate, but, occasionally at least, spend weeks or months before 

 taking to the water or being cut off by battle or disease. When 

 they do begin to disappear, it is not many days before they are no 

 longer to be met with alive, while the number of dead bodies to be 

 seen everywhere, both on land and along the shores of lakes, rivers, 

 and fjords, proves that they have not "melted into thin air," in 

 whatever manner tliey may have come into the country. 



Personally we can date our acquaintance with the Norwegian 

 Lemmings back to the autumn of 1872, when we were grouse- 

 shooting on the mountains around the celebrated Rjukan Foss in 

 Telemarken. Upon that occasion we captured a number and 

 succeeded in finding four that lived harmoniously together, and 

 which became very tame during the two or three weeks we had 

 them. We thought of presenting them to this Society, but they 

 were unfortunately drowned on our passage down the lake Tinso. 



In 18/6 we found, on getting to Norway in the month of April, 

 that the whole coast, at all events from the Christiania fjord to 

 Christiansand, swarmed with Lemmings that had descended during 

 the previous autumn. One gentleman told us that in the town of 

 Arendal, the first thing to be done every morning was to collect the 

 bodies of Lemmings in the streets and in the courtyards of the houses 

 that had been killed by cats during the night. In the courtyard of 

 his own dwelHng he had counted up to twenty-seven dead Lemmings 

 one morning. 



We found the same state of things further north. Under almost 



