78 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



VII. The Mammalia and Birds of Franz Josef Land. By 

 William S. Bruce, F.RS.G.S., and Welliam Eagle 

 ■ Clarke, F.L.S. 



(Read 16th March 1898.) 



I. MAMMALIA, by William S. Bruce, F.RS.G.S., with 

 Notes by Mr James Simpson. 



In the beginning of June 1896, while in charge of the 

 Observatory at the summit of Ben Nevis, I was asked by 

 the Secretary of the Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition 

 whether I would join the expedition as naturalist. After 

 eight hours' preparation, exclusive of the time it took me to 

 descend the mountain and to travel to London, I joined 

 Mr Harmworth's yacht, the "Windward," at 10 a.m. on 

 Tuesday, the 9th of June. By 25th July the '' Windward" 

 reached Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land, the headquarters of 

 the expedition. On our arrival we found Dr Nansen and 

 Lieutenant Johansen had found their way to the encampment. 

 They returned with the " Windward" to Norway sixteen days 

 later. On the 3rd of September 1897, the whole expedition 

 returned to London. It was during this period that I was 

 enabled to make the observations and collections of the 

 Mammalia and Birds of Franz Josef Land. I placed the 

 collection of birds in the hands of my friend, Mr Eagle 

 Clarke, and he has very ably described the avifauna of Franz 

 Josef Land. The whole paper is an account of all the 

 observations on mammals and birds that have been made 

 in Franz Josef Land by Payer, Leigh Smith, Nansen, and 

 the Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition, and of the 

 collections brought back by them. The chief interest lies 

 in the fact that so few observations and collections have 

 been made in Franz Josef Land, only one expedition 

 previous to Mr Harmsworth's, namely, that of Mr Leigh 

 Smith, in his first voyage of the " Eira," having succeeded 

 in returning to Europe with its ship intact. Previous to my 

 arrival in 1896 there was no zoologist on the expedition. 

 Dr Keginald Koettlitz, however, medical officer and geologist 

 to the expedition, made a number of interesting observations 



