The terrestrial mammals and birds of North-East Greenland. 91 



On the southern side of Hochstetters Forland — lat. 75° n. — 

 Jarner found towards the end of April many fresh traces of musk- 

 oxen on the snow. The animals themselves he did not see. 



Bones of musk oxen were found near many of the old Eskimo 

 dwelling-places examined by the expedition. Some of the skulls 

 which were lying everyw^here in the ground were highh^ decayed 

 and covered with lichen. On these skulls the sheaths of the horns 

 were quite devoured by time, and there is no doubt that they must 

 have remained there for centuries. 



Some of the skulls found in the ground have been brought 

 home to the museum, among these a few^ specimens of the above 

 described old type. 



Reindeer. Rangifer tarandus L. 



In those parts of the countrj' which were visited by the expedi- 

 tion, the reindeer now seems to have disappeared completely. 



How ever, innumerable testimonies of the rich occurrence of the 

 species in former times were met with everywhere, yet not more 

 to the north than on Holms Land — lat. 80^ 24' n. — where we 

 found some horns of reindeer in old Eskimo dwellings. 



Dropped horns and the excrements of the animal remained as 

 well on the smallest islands as on the continent. 



On the small rocky island "Pladen" in Dove Bugt I thus found 

 no less than about fifty horns of reindeer, and the two little islands 

 Maroussia and Renskæret, lying towards the sea, were strown with 

 horns and heaps of excrements. 



In many of the old Eskimo dwellings examined by us, prepared 

 antlers and other remains of reindeer were found. 



The antlers found on the ground seemed to be of very different 

 date. Some were partly decayed and overgrown with lichen, while 

 others were comparatively fresh. As a rule the horns were lying 

 uncovered, yet we found not rarely horns partly or completely cov- 

 ered with mould. 



In size and shape the horns varied extremely. Some of them 

 had a round, almost cylindric main trunk, others a highly com- 

 pressed one. The branches might be broad, sometimes shovel- 

 shaped, small and round etc. (A large sortiment of reindeer horns 

 found in the ground was brought home to the museum in Copen- 

 hagen.) 



