MAMMALS OF NORTHEKN CANADA 243 



hood of FoTt Anderson, from Fort McPherson on Peel Elver, 

 and from Fort Yukon in eastern Alaska, many examples 

 were obtained of this small animal, whicih were forwarded to 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington some forty years 

 ago. From the published records of Arctic explorations 

 there can be little doubt that at least two species of lemmings 

 are comparatively abundant, even at the highest attained 

 latitude, at many points of the northern polar lands of the 

 Dominion of Canada visited by the various ship expeditions. 

 On Baring Island Doctor Armstrong found them numer- 

 ous in many localities, at most periods of each season, and 

 also in large numbers on the ice during the spring thaws. He 

 also knew them to prey on each other, has himself partaken 

 of their flesh, and thought it delicately nice and tender. He 

 writes that the female lemming produces from two to six at 

 a birth. Sir Edward Parry found two species of lemming 

 equally abundant on Melville Island; he gives the number 

 of young as varying ibetween four and eight. A female 

 captured in 1820 had four in uteror On July 12 he dis- 

 covered a nest containing six blind, naked, and helpless little 

 ones, which grew so rapidly that they were able to quit it 

 ten days later. Lemmings subsist on the products of the 

 soil, such as dry dwarf willow, grasses, etc. Sir James 

 Clark Koss states that lemmings were very abundant in 

 Boothia, and he also confirms the above birth references 

 from his observation. Captain Markham, of Sir George 

 E" ares' expedition, met with lemmings on his North Pole 

 expedition of 1875-76, while General Greely found them 

 in large numbers on Grinnell Land, as far north as latitude 

 83° 24' north. Eight examples were secured by his party 

 during their stay in that quarter. They live in comfortable 

 nests, composed of dry grasses, in holes in the ground, with 

 two entrances to each. Sir John Ross found the skeleton 

 of a lemming on an ice floe 60 miles north of Spitzbergen, 

 in 1827. 



