FLORA AND FAUNA ON THE NORTH COAST 



feel disposed to go far out of my way for the sake of the little mite, I whistled, 

 with the result that the lemming stopped at once. Every time it recommenced 

 its rolling along, like a fluffy little ball of wool, I whistled and made it stop. 

 When I came stamping up to it on my large snowshoes, the Lilliputian sat up 

 on its hind legs, spat at me, and showed its teeth. The little wanderer ended 

 its days by a slight knock across the snout." 



Of the birds, the ptarmigan is most common. The expedition met with it 

 wherever it went. In the beginning it was white, but, as summer advanced, 

 first the ptarmigan hen and later on the cock became speckled with brown. It 

 subsisted on parts of plants ; Wulff found, for instance, many buds of the 

 red saxifrage in its crop. Evidently the ptarmigan here in the north live in 

 couples — not in polygamy, as they do further south — and from approximately 

 the middle of June nests with eggs were found. Young were seen in the 

 latter part of July. 



The other herbivorous birds which the expedition saw on the north coast of 

 Greenland were migratory. First the snow-bunting appeared ; as early as the 

 24th of April it was heard twittering when the expedition was on its way to 

 the north coast (N. Lat. 81°). The others came later on. The swimmers 

 were : The brent-goose, the king-eider, and the long-tailed duck ; of these 

 only the brent-goose was common; it was seen for the first time on the 11th 

 of June — that is, during the first days of spring. 



As a link between the swimming birds and the carnivorous animals we 

 may put down the waders, which live on small animals in the pools, and are 

 also truly grateful for the half-rotted and floating parts of plants amongst 

 which the little animals are found. Of these the most common were the 

 sandpipers and the turnstones. The sandpipers arrived first, being seen as 

 earlj- as the 30th of May, whilst the turnstone was not observed until the 

 10th of June. About the 1st of July the first eggs of these birds were found, 

 and on the 20th their young were seen. 



Terns and gulls are carnivorous. They were not observed very frequently. 

 The tern was seen in the middle of June, the gulls (herring-gulls and ivory- 

 gulls) both before and after this date. Very common was the little Arctic 

 gull with its elegant bifurcate tail and its long wings ; it arrived on the 9th of 

 June, and its young appeared just after the middle of July. It is a proper 

 beast of prey whose food mainly consists, to judge from the contents of its 

 stomach, of the little lemming; this agrees with the observations of the Ban- 

 mark Expedition. 



But the worst robber amongst the birds in these regions is the snowy owl, 

 which was seen occasionally, and the nest of which was also found. Neither 

 the raven nor the Icelandic falcon were observed on the north coast of Green- 

 land ; but no doubt both birds would occasionally pass these districts on their 

 long flights. 



The carnivorous mammals are generally observed singly or a few together ; 

 there is not sufficient food for them to congregate in great numbers. The 

 members of the expedition often saw the white Polar wolf slinking about at a 

 safe distance like an uncomfortable reminder. Also the Polar fox and the 

 ermine are occasionally observed. The Polar bear seems to be very rare on 

 the north coast; only at rare intervals were its tracks found, and a newly 

 killed young seal by Dragon Point was assumed to have fallen a victim to it. 



As the sea off the coast and in the fjords is permanently frozen, one cannot 

 expect to find many marine animals. There were, however, several seals fre- 



299 



