94 Freminmlle's Voyage to the North Pole. 



4. The dog- is about the size of our shepherd's dogs, which he 

 pretty much resembles. The ears are straight, but gashed or 

 broken at their extremities ; this is a character peculiar to the 

 Iceland dogs. 



5. The Isatift, or Canis Lagopus of Linnaeus, is very common 

 in Iceland. The natives call him the blue fox, from the slate- 

 coloured tinge of his hair ; he is very destructive to the 

 flocks. Though a carnivorous animal, he will likewise eat 

 grass, for I found a quantity of it in the stomach of a young 

 one killed near Vatneyre. What was still more singular, we 

 found in the viscera of this animal the opercules and other 

 remnants of a shell-fish, common on the shore. T was not 

 aware, till then, that mamiferous animals of this description 

 would eat shell-fish, and particularly such whose shell is so 

 hard ; nor, I conceive, has the fact been hitherto noticed by na- 

 turalists. 



6. The white bear is not a native of Iceland, but frequently 

 arrives there on floating fragments of ice that are carried thi- 

 ther from the coasts of Greenland. On the appearance of these 

 terrible animals, the inhabitants sound an alarm, and collect 

 from every quarter to chace and destroy them before they have 

 time to multiply. 



7. The seal is very common. We saw more than once, round 

 the bay of Leduc, another species of seal of the very largest 

 dimensions, being- eight or ten feet in length. The head, in- 

 stead of terminating in a pointed muzzle, as in the preceding 

 tribe, is large, wide, and much like that of a dog. The co- 

 lour, taken altogether, of the animal, is that of grey ashes ; un- 

 like the rest of his genus, he is very shy and ferocious, and 

 will let none approach him. I could only kill one of them. 



8. The whale, designated by Linnaeus as the balcena my- 

 ticetus, is less common here than at Spitzberg. 



9. The gibber, or north caper, baltsna physalus, is frequently 

 met with on the coasts of Iceland. 



Birds are in greater number and variety than the mammi- 

 ferous animals ; but the marine species are the most numerous. 

 We saw none, however, that are not well known to ornitho- 

 logists. Such as, 



1 Aqnila chrysaetos. 



2 Aquila ossifraga. 



3 Aquila Canaclmsis. 



4 Falco haliaetos. 



5 Falco communis. 



6 Falco camlicans. 



7 Strix scandiacca. 



8 Strix aluco. 



9 Corvus corax. 



10 Emberiza tiivalis. 



11 Fringilla vulgaris. 



12 Cliar.idjius auntliis. 



13 Scolopax gallinago. 



14 Anas cygmis. 



15 Anas in sea. 



16 Anas anser. 



17 Anas borealis. 



18 Anas molfissima. 





