MAMMALS. 



FRAGMENTARY NOTES ON THE MAMMALIA OF CUMBERLAND SOUND. 



]5y LlDWKi KU.MLIKX. 



The following list coutains little else than fragmentary notes on such 

 species as I procnreclj or with certainty identified, during my short so- 

 journ in the northern w aters of Cumberland Sound (the Hogarth Sound 

 of Penny), at about hit. 67° N. 



Tlie region about our winter harbor was marvelously barren, and very 

 few mammals are found there. Its location is such that many of the 

 species that frequent the southern waters are seldom found about An- 

 nanactook, as it is so far " inland." It is a rarity for a bear to stray up 

 the sound any distance, and some of the seals and most of the cetaceans 

 are only of irregular occurrence. 



Kear the southern entrance of the sound, however, the harp seal, polar 

 bear, walrus, and many of the cetaceans, are regular visitors. I have 

 not the least doubt that many cetaceans are found in these waters that 

 I did not see. Should I place confidence in the information of whale- 

 men regarding whales, I could easily make out many species, and some 

 very marvelous ones; but my exi)ericnce has been that whalemen gen- 

 erally are not to be relied upon in this matter, as they confound species 

 to such a degree that one can never unravel the snarl, and their own 

 peculiar nomenclature makes matters worse instead of better. 



My stay was also much too sliort for anything like a satisfactory inves- 

 tigation of certain interesting problems. I was even obliged to leave 

 some valuable skeletons, and could have procured many more had there 

 been anj' place to stow them away on shipboard. 



There seems to be a prevalent belief among the Eskimo, as well as the 

 whalemen, that the mammals have disappeared from this section of 

 country at a wonderful rate within the last few years. I found the re- 

 mains of Trichechns rosmarus, Cistophora cristata, and Ursns maritimiis in 

 the ancient kitchenmiddens in Kingwah Fjord, in localities where these 

 animals occur at the present day only as rare stragglers. It is hardly 

 probable that such large animals could have been brought any distance, 



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