OCR Text |
Show 358 MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. [May 28, jak, vidi, inque hoc dentes spurios tales confertim congestos quales Steller" (vid. loc. cit. Adel.* § 189). Again, immediately under the head of "Phoca ursina," he says : - " Grcenl. A U V E K A E J A K . - M a m esse animal quod sub nomine hocmemorant incolaenon est dubitandum. Dicunt illud in Australiori Grcenlandia, licet raro, dari quadrupes pilosum, ferociter omne occurrens dilacerare, et si visum consumere: ursi maritimi more terra marique degere, impetuosissime natare, venatores valide infestare. Dentes ut amuleta contra^ulcera, nee non quodammodo ad instrumenta venatoria adhibentur." There is an evident uncertainty in Fabricius's mind; and he has listened too much to the idle fables of the natives (who have, as I shall presently show, many of that nature) ; whatever it is, there can, I think, be scarcely a doubt as to the exclusion of Trichechus manatus and Phoca ursina from the Greenland fauna; nor can their place as yet be supplied by any other species. Prof. Steenstrup thinks that it was a portion of the skull of the Sea-wolf (Anarrhichas). The situation of the teeth and the nature of this fish's cellular skull well agree with his description of the skull as "full of holes" (forhulretf). Hr. Bolbrce, who understands the Eskimo language intimately, tells me that the word means a "little Walrus," and that in all probability it was only the skull of a young Walrus, an animal not at all familiar to Fabricius, as they are chiefly confined to one spot, and the natives fear to go near that locality. Fabricius may have only written the description from recollection; and memory, assisted by preconceived notions, may have led him into error in the description of the long teeth, which after all might, without great trouble, be made to refer to the dentition of the young Walrus as described by Macgillivrayi and Riippell§. This opinion is strengthened by a passage in Fabricius's account of the Walrus, when he again is in doubt whether a certain animal is the young of the Walrus or the Dugong, " De varietate dentibus ex-ertis brevioribus loquuntur incolse, quam minus recte (ut videtur) ad Phocas referunt, si non pullus rosmari, an animal Dugong " (Buff. 205, 245, tab. lvi). So that, after all, perhaps the Auvekcejak was only the young of the Walrus ; and this opinion I am on the whole inclined to acquiesce in. Fabricius enters, under the name of "Mustela gulo, L." (Gulo borealis, Retz.), an animal which the natives talked about under the name of Kappik. It was said to be found in south Greenland, among high mountains, particularly besides streams, and was especially fond of the hearts of Reindeer. He considered it to be the well-known Wolverine, the Jerf of Scandinavia (Norse Arc, Erv, and Jcerv ; Swedish Jerf, Gerf; Finnish Kamppi and Kamppi-Karhu). * Adelung: ' Geschichte der Schifffahrten und Versuche zur Entdeckung des nordostlichen Weges nach Japan und China' (Halle, 1768) is the book Fabricius refers to. There is a wrong reference in F. G. to Adelung, viz. 189 for 148. t Reinhardt, loc. cit. p. 8. \ Naturalists' Library, (Mammalia) vol. vii. (vol. xiii. of series), p. 220. M'Gillivray's Edin. Journ. of Nat. Hist, and Phvsical Sciences, Aug. 1838, p. 153; Hamilton in Nat. Lib. vol. viii. p. 102. § Bulletin Scien. Nat. vol. xvii. p. 280. |