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OCCASIONAL NOTES. 105 
the Curlew Sandpiper in North Greenland rests on no stronger evidence 
than that recorded by Dr. Brewer in ‘ The Ibis,’ it must at any rate be 
received with caution. The Ornithology of the west coast of Greenland, as 
far north as the district of Uperuivik, or, in other words, to nearly the 
seventy-fourth parallel of north latitude, has received careful investigation 
by a number of Danish naturalists, both resident and non-resident in 
Greenland, embracing such well-known names as Fabricius, Holboll, and 
the Reinhardts. The Curlew Sandpiper has not been recorded by those 
observers and naturalists as even an uncommon visitor to the coasts of 
Greenland; and now to be told that it is not uncommon as a breeding 
species in the district of Christianshaab may well excite incredulity. 
Moreover, it may be remarked that the species has never been recognised 
in Iceland, the Feroe Islands, or on the coast of Kast Greenland, and is 
recorded as scarcely more than a straggler along the Atlantic coast of the 
United States. The breeding haunts of Tringa subarquata appear to be 
the tundras of North-Western Europe and Northern Asia; and I should 
as soon expect to hear of the nesting of Tringa Temminckii or Tringa 
minuta in Greenland as of the Curlew Sandpiper. In thus expressing 
myself, I do not wish to cast any reflection on Mr. Ludwig Kumlien, who 
may be a competent observer; for by Dr, Brewer's account the eggs now 
in the Smithsonian Institution, and credited to the Curlew Sandpiper, were 
not found by Mr. Kumlein, but were procured through the assistance of 
my friend Mr. Fencker, one of the Danish officials at Godhavn, Island of 
Disco. I expect that, on inquiry, it will be found that these eggs were not 
collected by, nor under the personal supervision of, Mr. Fencker, but 
obtained by him from native Greenlanders during his official visits to the 
settlements on the mainland opposite Disco Island. I regret that I am 
unable to give a precise account of the proceedings of the expedition to 
which Mr. Ludwig Kumlein was attached as naturalist; but the following 
brief sketch will, I think, be found substantially correct. On the return 
of the British Polar Expedition in 1876, it was urged by Captain Howgate, 
of the United States Army, that an attempt to reach the North Pole should 
be inaugurated by planting small colonies along the shores of Smith Sound, 
which would form the basis for further operations. Some money was 
collected for this purpose, but on a scale quite inadequate for a scheme of 
such proportions; however, a small sailing-vessel was fitted out as a 
tentative measure, and despatched to Davis Strait in 1877, under the 
command of Captain G. EK. Tyson. I do not suppose that a voyage to the 
Polar Regions was ever seriously entertained by this expedition, which was 
totally unfit for such an attempt; at any rate the vessel wintered no further 
north than Cumberland Sound, which is situated on the west side of Davis 
Strait, a little south of the Arctic circle, and where American vessels 
engaged in whaling not unfrequently winter. In the summer of 1878 
P 
