230 A SPEING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



for on May 8th. we killed them in pure winter dress, 

 and by the 17th they were in full summer dress, 

 and after that we never obtained a white 

 specimen. 



The squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris, Lin. ; " ekorre," 

 Sw.). — In certain seasons squirrels abound in the 

 Lapland forests, on others very few are to be seen. 

 They are much sought after, by both settlers and 

 Laps, for the skins, which are sold for lining 

 ladies' cloaks — and a pretty and expensive liningthey 

 make. They are shot in autumn and spring, not 

 in the depth of winter, at which season it appears 

 they hybernate, like the dormouse. At this 

 season they are silvery grey. The skins are sold 

 by the forty, the price of forty being this spring 

 about 8s. 6d. I remarked that the summer dress 

 of the squirrel is much darker and browner in 

 Lapland than I have ever seen it elsewhere. 



The lemming (Lemmus JSTorwegicus, Worn.; 

 "fjaUlemmel," Sw.). — We now come to an animal 

 peculiar to these northern tracts, and one whose 

 migrations have given rise to so much conjecture 

 and so many exaggerated statements, that I was 

 most anxious to see how much truth there was in 

 the accounts which I had heard of the countless 

 thousands of these little mice marching straight 

 over the country in a compact body, swimming 

 rivers, never turning from their course, and devas- 



