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distance beyond the present shores of Norway, and thus the 
lemmings would have acquired the habit of travelling westward 
in search of better climate and more abundant food ; and as little 
by little the ocean encroached on the land the same advantages 
would still be attained. And thus, too, we find an explanation 
of the fate which befalls the adventurous wanderers ; for we 
have already seen that no lake deters them, and that they fre- 
quently cross the fjords, or arms of the sea, in safety. No doubt, 
therefore, they commit themselves to the Atlantic in the belief 
that it is as passable as those lakes and fjords which they have 
already successfully dared, and that beyond its waves lies a land 
which they are never destined to reach. 
The submerged continent of Lemuria, in what is now the 
Indian Ocean, is considered to afford an explanation of many 
difficulties in the distribution of organic life, and I think the 
existence of a Miocene Atlantis will be found to have a strong 
elucidative bearing on subjects of greater interest than the 
migration of the lemming. At all events, if it can be shown 
that land existed in former ages where the North Atlantic 
now rolls, not only is a motive found for these apparently 
suicidal migrations, but also a strong collateral proof that 
what we call instincts are but the blind and sometimes even 
prejudicial inheritance of previously acquired experience. 
