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Show 1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 359 If so, it must be exceedingly rare, for since his time no one has been able to obtain or hear of a specimen. W e more than suspect, however, that here, as elsewhere, he was only reproducing in a zoological dress the stories of the natives. So little was then known of the zoology of the Arctic regions, that he might well be excused for entering such animals in his fauna, there existing no reason why they should not be found in Greenland. If Fabricius could have lived to this day, he would have been the first to erase these from his list. The reason why I think so is this:-Under the head of " Ursus luscus" he has inserted a very doubtful and problematical animal, talked of long before his day, and equally so now, under the name of "Amarok" ("Ursus luscus, Eg.* 33, Cr.f 99, ex descriptione pellis ejus. Cf. Continuation. J 287, ubi dicitur subfusca, forsitan etiam veterum Hyaena Torf.§ 82"). This animal seems the same as that which he indicated in his fauna under the name of "Mustela gulo." He describes it as very fierce, corresponding in this respect with the character of the Wolverine. Depending upon the natives being in the habit of distinguishing animals by different names very clearly, he considered that Amarok and Kappik were different animals. Neither of them he appears to know anything about. I found the Greenlanders talking to this day about the Amarok all over Greenland ; and wonderful stories they tell of its ferocity. It is the terror of the Greenlanders, as Fabricius truly enough remarks; everybody knew about it; but I could find nobody who had ever seen it||. Graah*|[ found the natives of the east coast equally familiar with the name of the Amarok; the name Kappik, however, was unknown in north Greenland. Finally I discovered a man in Claushavn who declared he had seen the Amarok; it hunted in packs, he said ; and this man made no secret of his belief that it was only native dogs which had escaped and returned to their wild state. In proof of this, he told m e that, as frequently happens during the annual Reindeer-hunting-season, one of his dogs escaped and could not be captured again. Three years after, one severe winter, when "looking" his fox-traps, he found the identical dog captured, much subdued by hunger, but still very fierce after living for so long a period out of the reach of the merciless lash. It served its master for many a day after in harness. This man described the " Amarok " as all grey. It has been supposed to be the Wolf (Canis occidentalis albo-griseus), and to have crossed over the ice in Smith's Sound; but, from what I have said about the Eskimo Dog, it will be apparent that to distinguish between a wild Dog and a Wolf is a matter of some difficulty. I think, therefore, that you will agree with me that the Wolverine has * Description of Greenland, Eng. transl. t History of Greenland, Eng. transl. | Continuation of the above. § Grcenlandia Aintiqua. | Mr. Tegner informs m e that one of the natives declares that in July 1867 he saw the marks of the foot of an .Ajnarok at the head of the Tessiursak, an inlet near Claushavn. % Lib. cit. p. 90. |