432 FAMILY PHOCID.&. 



and the "Atarpiak", making nine species formally introduced 

 (besides u Phoca grypus", which is treated incidentally at the 

 close of the account of the " Sviinsael"). The Phoca leporina of 

 Lepechin is a synonym of his Phoca barbata, but the Phoca lep- 

 orina of Fabricius has doubtless no foundation except in the 

 imagination of the Greenlanders. These doubtful or mythical 

 species have been especially investigated by Mr. "Robert Brown. 

 The Phoca ursina was based on a part of a cranium which was 

 "full of holes", but so much uncertainty prevailed in Fabricius's 

 mind respecting the nature of the creature it represented that 

 he makes the same fragment the basis for the introduction into 

 the Greenland fauna ("Fauna Grrenlandica", p. 6) of two spe- 

 cies, Steller's Sea-Cow (" Trichechus manatus J \=Rhytina gigas, 

 auct.) as well as Steller's Sea-Bear. Says Mr. Brown, " What- 

 ever it is, there can, I think, be scarcely a doubt as to the ex- 

 clusion of Trichechus manatus and Phoca ursina from the Green- 

 land fauna; nor can their place as yet be supplied by any other 

 species. Prof. Steenstrup thinks that it was a portion of the 

 skull of a Sea- wolf (Anarrhichas). The situation of the teeth 

 and the nature of this fish's cellular skull well agree with his 



description of the skull as 'full of holes 7 Hr. Bolbroe, 



who understands the Eskimo language intimately, tells me that 

 the word [Auvekwjah] means a i little walrus', and that in all 

 probability it was only the skull of a young walrus, an animal 

 not at all familiar to Fabricius, as they are chiefly confined to 

 one spot, and the natives fear to go near that locality. Fabri- 

 cius may have only written the description from recollection; 

 and memory, assisted by preconceived notions, may have led 

 him into error in the description of the long teeth, which after 

 all might, without great trouble, be made to refer to the denti- 

 tion of the young walrus This opinion is strengthened by 



a passage in Fabricius's account of the walrus, where he again 

 is in doubt whether a certain animal is the young of the walrus 



or the dugong So that, after all, perhaps the Amekmjak 



was only the young of the walrus ; and this opinion I am on 

 the whole inclined to acquiesce in".* 



The other species of Fabricius's supposed Phocw are thus re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Brown : " Fabricius has notified in his fauna 

 [and noticed them more at length in his later memoir on the 

 Greenland Seals already cited] many species of supposed Seals, 



*Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, p. 358; Man. Nat. Hist., etc., Greenland,, 

 Mam., p. 29. 



