390 P. Freuchen. 



Of birds, 13 species were observed, and tracks of 3 others seen. 



Observed: Tracks or other good sign seen of: 



Snow Bunting Barnacle Goose Greenland Gyrfalcon 



Redpoll Eider Duck Mallemuk (Fulmar) 



Ptarmigan Ringed Plover . Snowy Owl 



Turnstone Red-throated Diver Longtailed Skua 



Sanderling Lapland Bunting 



Tern Arctic Tern 

 Glaucous Gull. 



1, Musk ox. Ovibos moschatus. 



The expedition was from first to last equipped as for the sledge 

 trips we were accustomed to make in our own country about Thule, 

 i. е. in Eskimo fashion, the food of both dogs and men consisting of 

 game procured on the way. We had here counted on musk ox, and were 

 by no means disappointed, killing 84 in all, which number we could 

 have increased considerably had it been necessary. The fear expressed 

 by certain writers, including so eminent a scientist as Herluf Winge, 

 that the musk ox should be in danger of extermination, would seem 

 to be somewhat exaggerated; at any rate, there is doubtless reason to 

 believe that the danger is by no means imminent. Pearyland is for the 

 most part free from ice, and numerous expeditions have already had 

 occasion to note that the musk ox are found there in astonishing pro- 

 fusion, their numbers being far beyond what might be expected in view 

 of the sparseness of vegetation. A country so distant and inaccessible 

 as this forms in itself a natural preserve, a "National Park", where the 

 percentage killed by an occasional expedition may doubtless be regarded 

 as insignificant. In the Eskimo kitchen middens at Independence Bay 

 we found bones of musk ox, a fact which shows that they must have 

 been hunted in former times, without having become exterminated as 

 yet, although the Eskimos would certainly never have considered the 

 question of protective measures. 



I should here observe, however, that the musk ox have not 

 everywhere been able to survive the systematic hunting to which they 

 are subjected by the Eskimos. That they should have been exterminated 

 in the Arctic Eskimos' own district is not remarkable, when we consider 

 the small extent of that country; of late however, since the reindeer 

 have become to all intents and purposes extinct there, on account of 

 a succession of winters with "skarresne"^, the natives have begun to 

 make excursions into Ellesmere Land, where the musk ox are already 

 very scarce, in order to obtain sleeping furs. In 1912, having discoл^ered 



1 "Skarresne" — a thin and brittle crust, which forms upon the snow under 

 certain atmospheric conditions. 



