72 THE NORTHERN TERMINATION OF GREENLAND. 



Scoresby's specimen remained for long unique in the Edinburgh 

 Museum, until in 1869 and 1870 the German Expedition found 

 it in abundance on the same coast. This fact was interesting 

 in itself, for it is unknown in the region, so far as has been ex- 

 plored further to tbe south, and in all parts of the west coast of 

 Greenland explored up to the date of the Polaris Expedition. How- 

 ever, tbat Expedition found it not at all uncommon on the shores of 

 the most northern reaches of Smith Sound (or the continuation 

 of the gulf which goes under that name). The variety appears the 

 same as on the east coast, but different from the lemming of the 

 western shores of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, which is Myodes 

 hudsonius. Again the question suggests itself, how has this animal 

 found its way across Greenland to the east coast, or vice versa ? That 

 its route has not been across the inland ice we may consider certain ; 

 we may be sure.it has been where food and footing could be found. 

 In its migrations it will most likely be found to have been a com- 

 panion of the musk-ox. The European ermine (Mustela erminea, L.) 

 was also found by the German Expedition on the north-eastern 

 coast, but is quite unknown on the west. If it should be found 

 in Smith Sound also, the fact would form another remarkable zoo- 

 geographical problem for the English Polar Expedition to solve. 



Lastly, it is, I venture to suggest, probable, or at least not im- 

 probable, that the aborigines, who to a small number now, but at 

 one time in greater numbers, inhabited the east coast of Greenland 

 did not stretch up from Cape Farewell as colonists from the west 

 coast, but doubled the northern end of the country from the Smith 

 Sound region. Like the Smith Sound people, the east coast 

 Eskimo seem to want the kayak ; and it would be an interesting 

 point to compare the implements, &c, of the remnant of tl Arctic 

 Highlanders" now living in Smith Sound, with the Eskimo of 

 the south-eastern coast, and with the remains which the German 

 Expedition discovered in the graves, which are now the only repre- 

 sentatives of the fur-clad hunters and fishers who once inhabited 

 that part of the coast explored by these intrepid voyagers. 



If it should be found that the Greenland coast trends on the 

 east towards the west and on the west towards the east, as there is 

 some ground for believing, it is just possible that the English 

 Arctic Expedition might be able to double the northern extremity 

 of the continent, more especially if a sea comparatively free of 

 fixed ice (I will not venture to say " an open Polar sea ") be found 

 to lave its northern shores. Once on the eastern shores of Green- 

 land, the observations of Captain David Gray, a Peterhead whaler, 

 who last summer penetrated through the Spitzbergen ice-stream, 



