446 ACCOUNT or the arctic ILEGIOXS- 



CHAPTKK VI. 



A SKETCH OF THE ZOOLOGY OF THE AUCTIC 

 REGIONS. 



L HE view here given of the arctic zoology, is not 

 intended as a systematic Fauna Arctica, but mere- 

 ly as the skeleton of such a work ; consisting almost 

 solely of original observations on, and descriptions 

 of, the more remarkable animals inhabiting or fre- 

 quenting Spitzbergen, and the adjacent seas. Of 

 such animals as have already been well described, 

 or of such as are familiar to almost eveiy one, a 

 simple list only is given, excepting an occasion- 

 al remark, illustrative of their habits or characters. 

 Some animals, however, of the cetaceous kind, 

 which we occasionally meet with in the Greenland 

 Sea, are not even named in this sketch, because, I 

 frankly confess, that, although I liave seen them 

 more than once, I could not ascertain to what ge- 

 nus even they belonged. Indeed, the distinguish- 

 ing characters of many of the Cetacea are so im- 

 perfectly known and described, that when any spe- 

 cies, not very familiar, comes under the eye of the 



