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Show 1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 353 party starved a few years before. Behind Holsteensborg are valleys full of Reindeer ; and I have heard tales of people climhing the hills in that vicinity, and looking down into glens where the Reindeer were so numerous that they might be supposed to be the herds of a wealthy Laplander. Ten thousand skins were shipped from that port some years ago. They are slaughtered indiscriminately by the natives-these improvident people, in nine cases out often, leaving the hides and flesh, and only taking the tongues. They are bad-enough shots ; and the Danish traders supply them with powder at less than prime cost (viz. 36 skillings, or 9d., per lb.), with a view to increase the produce of the hunt; but this ammunition is wasted in a most reckless manner. On the way to and from these hunts up the fjords ("the interior country," though really the natives know of no place off the coast more than the Europeans do), with that savage desire to kill every living thing, ducks are shot and left lying, or, if they feel hungry, they will tear off the titbits: a Ptarmigan will be shot sitting on its eggs, and the ball cut out of its body to be again used in this murderous sport. There is no necessity for it; for at this time they are abundantly supplied with food, even to excess. It is, however, the season of sport and fun, looked forward to by the natives much in the same light as we do to our grouse-shooting or deerstalking, and is about as profitable to all parties concerned. In order to pursue this they leave the more lucrative Seal-fishery, and neglect to lay in a winter's supply of food ; so that when the " banyan " days come they bitterly regret their folly, and weary for the bleached carcasses up the frozen fjords. Notwithstanding this, regularly as the season comes round they are off again to the shooting from far and near, and repeat the same improvident course: nor, if they like it, has anybody a right to complain. In all verity, enjoyments few enough fall to the lot of these hyperborean hunters. However, the effect of this indiscriminate slaughter is now being felt in the decrease of the Reindeer in many parts where they were once common. They are no longer found on Disco Island, as in the days of Cranz and Fabricius. Indeed there are now very few shot in mid-Greenland, and many of the natives are giving up the hunt for them altogether. During the summer of 1867 only five Reindeer were killed in the district of Ritenbenk (lat. 69° 45' N.). The yearly average had been about twenty or thirty ; but the Governor informs me that in his opinion Reindeer-hunting-days are nearly over in that section of the country. In the districts of Jakobshavn, Clavshavn, and Christianshaab I did not learn that one had been killed. Alt'Clavshavn a few natives went out hunting, but met with bad weather, and returned for good, having only seen two animals altogether, and shot nothing. In the southern portion of the country more are seen, not so much on the coast as up the valleys by the fjords. It is in May or June that most of the natives leave their winter houses, and go Reindeer-hunting. When they do dry any meat, they cover it up in caches. The dogs are not taken along with them. In old times, even making P R O C . Z O O L . Soc-1868, No. XXIII. |
