Elton wrote up his novel spin on Collett’s findings7 into a scientific paper, which appeared in the British Journal of Experimental Biology in 1924. The paper started out with a fairly neutral description of the phenomenon. “For many years,” Elton explained, “the lemmings have periodically forced themselves upon public attention in southern Norway by migrating down in swarms into the lowland in autumn, and in many cases marching with great speed and determination into the sea, in attempting to swim across which they perish,”
