in 1900 that it was a »lemming-year» (se Nathorst, Två Somrar 

 i Norra Ishafvet, II, 1900, p. 289). Nothing was found to in- 

 dicate this, no wandering or any trace of such a one was found. 

 Indeed, the circumstances seem to be the ordinary ones (if I 

 have understood Kolthoff rightly, he is of my opinion) ; this ap- 

 pears best from the fact that the lemming often was found, 

 rather commonly, in places far from each other. It is rather 

 so that former expeditions have not noticed the lemming in 

 several places. As an instance of how easily this may happen, 

 may be named that it was not till the snow had fallen, that the 

 expedition of Ryder discovered that the lemming was rather 

 common in Danmarks 0; nevertheless it was never caught 

 there. Its hidden way of living explains, as Bay lays stress 

 on, this sufficiently, for it is probably rather seldom that one 

 sees it running on the ground in the middle of the day, as we 

 did sometimes. That the lemming is a nocturnal animal , we 

 had best opportunity of seeing, during our way home, where we 

 had several living ones in cages. During the day they were 

 quiet, preferred staying in the passages they had made between 

 the green turfs, we had put at the bottom of the cages ; sometimes 

 they came forth, but all of them only to get food. But during 

 the night they led a restless life, they ran about screaming and 

 piping; they often got to blows; they gnawed the cage and 

 scraped the ground so eagerly that we understood, the night 

 was their time. One night they gnawed themselves out from 

 one of the cages, but were caught in time. 



A thing deserving to be mentioned at greater length, is the 

 dwellings of globular form, с 5" on an average, found not sel- 

 dom lying freely on the earth ; they are as the usual nests in 

 the earth made of stalks of grass , inside they are lined with 

 moss, and wool from the musk-ox; on the side they have a 

 narrow entrance, sticking out like a little spout. Bay (I.e., p. 18) 

 has already mentioned them ; he found several of them in Hold 

 with Hope; he does not think it impossible that they are made 



