Letters, Announcements, b;c. 487 



Dr. Brewer's account the eggs now in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and credited to the Cui'lew Sandpiper, were not found 

 by Mr. Kumlien, but were procured through the assistance 

 of my friend Mr. Fencker, one of the Danish officials at God- 

 havn. Island of Disco. I expect that, on inquiry, it will be 

 found that these eggs were not collected by, nor under the 

 personal supervision of, Mr. Fencker, but obtained by him 

 from native Greenlanders during his official visits to the settle- 

 ments on the mainland opposite Disco Island. 



I regret that I am unable to give a precise account of the 

 proceedings of the expedition to which Mr. Ludwig Kumlien 

 was attached as naturalist ; but the following brief sketch will, 

 I think, be found substantially correct. On the return of 

 the British Polar Expedition in 1876, it was urged by 

 Captain Howgate, of the United-States Army, that an attempt 

 to reach the North Pole should be inaugurated by planting 

 small colonies along the shores of Smith Sound, which would 

 form the basis for further operations. Some money was col- 

 lected for this purpose, but on a scale quite inadequate for a 

 scheme of such proportions ; however, a small sailing-vessel 

 was fitted out as a tentative measure, and despatched to Davis 

 Strait in 1877, under the command of Captain G. E. Tyson. 

 I do not suppose that a voyage to the Polar Regions was ever 

 seriously entertained by this expedition, which was totally 

 unfit for such an attempt ; at any rate the vessel wintered no 

 further north than Cumberland Sound, which is situated on 

 the west side of Davis Strait, a little south of the Arctic 

 circle, and where American vessels engaged in whaling not 

 unfrequently winter. In the summer of 1878 Captain Tyson 

 crossed Davis Strait in his vessel, called in at Godhavn, and 

 afterwards returned to the United States. I think it highly 

 probable that the supposed Curlew Sandpiper's eggs were 

 obtained by Mr. Kumlien from Mr. Fencker during this visit 

 to Godhavn, and that Mr. Kumlien did not personally find 

 Tringa subarquata nesting in the district of Christianshaab, 



North Greenland. 



H. W. Feilden. 



Aldershot, July 10, 1879. 



