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Show 1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 349 follows his lead. En passant I may remark that dog-driving is by no means an easily acquired or a light labour. In North Greenland and among the wild Arctic highlanders of Cape York and Smith's Sound, dogs are also valuable assistants, by attacking the Polar Bear while the hunter plants his spears in the animal*. They are also used a little in Seal-hunting. Their flesh is also highly appreciated, but rather too valuable for anything except an occasional dainty. The skin is highly valued for socks, and that of the pups for winter clothing ; but so scarce have they become, that it is now very hard to raise enough for an anarak (jumper), and one of our party paid 18 rigsdaler (£2) for enough to make an overcoat. N o longer, as in Giesecke's dayf, is it rejected as an article of trade on account of its disagreeable odour. [4. FELIS DOMESTICA, Briss. Grcenl. Kitsungoak. The Domestic Cat has been kept in Greenland ever since the Danish women came, and it follows them in all their sojournings north and south. In Fabricius's day it was already not uncommon. At present there are many in Julianeshaab district, where mice are quite abundant and troublesome.] 5. MYODES TORQUATUS (Pall.), Keys. & Bias. This Lemming was found by Capt. Scoresby, in the year 1822, near Scoresby's Sound, on the east coast of Greenland, lat. 69°, and was described by the late Professor Traill, in the Appendix to Scoresby's Voyage to Greenland, as a new species under the name of Mus grcenlandicus. From a careful examination of the original and only specimen, now in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, I am inclined to believe, with Middendorff J, that it is not distinct from those already described, and that the Myodes hudsonius of Forster (Mus hudsonius, Forster in Phil. Trans, lxii. p. 379 ; Lemmus hudsonius, Sab., Parry's Voyage, p. clxxxv) and the Mus grcenlandicus, Tr. (Myodes grcenlandicus, Wag. and J. E. Gray §, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, xvi. 1848, p. 43, and Id. in Rae's Narrative, 1850), are identical with the Siberian Myodes torquatus (Pall.), Keys. & Bias. It can only be classed as a very rare and local (possibly accidental) member of the fauna of Greenland, as it has never since been found in the country ; Graah |] did not see it in his two years' journey, nor even hear of its existence. No doubt the east coast of Greenland is almost unapproachable for ice, and has never been visited since Graah's day, except for a little way round Cape Farewell. Whalers, however, have been known to have landed near Scoresby's Sound ; but * Vide an interesting account in Kane's ' Arctic Explorations.' f Giesecke, article " Greenland," in ' Brewster's Encyclopedia.' % Sib. Reise, II. ii. 1853, p. 87, pis. 4-7 & 10. § Arvicola grcenlandicp, Rich. I. c. 134; vide also Schreber, ' Saugethiere,' iii. p. 604 ; Giebel, 'Die Saugethiere' &c. (1859), p. 605. || Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland, Engl, transl. (1837). The original Danish edition in 4to (TJndersogelses-Reise til Ostkysten af Gronland, 183*2), however, is much superior in many respects. |
