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Show 656 MR. T. T. SOMERVILLE ON THE LEMMING. [Dec. 1, over 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 tbe 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 how, 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 precipitate, 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 davs before they are no longer to be met with alive, while the number 'of dead bod'ies 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," iu whatever manner they 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 harmoniouslv to°ether, 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 1876 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 k.lled by cats during the night. In the courtyard of his own dwelling he had counted up to twenty-seven dead Lemmings one morning. ° W e found the same state of things further noith. Under almost |