816 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
discovered by any of our parties, neither westward along the 
northern shores of Grinnell Land, or eastward along the coasts of 
Greenland that border the Polar Basin. I am quite convinced 
that the men whose tracks we followed as far as the eighty-second 
degree never got round Cape Union. Even in the short summer 
of July and part of August animal life is too scarce there to 
support a party of travelling Eskimo, whilst the idea of winter 
residence is beyond consideration. In my opinion it is impossible 
for any Eskimo to have rounded the northern shores of the 
Greenland continent, and the presence of the tribe seen by Sabine 
and Clavering on the eastern coast of Greenland may easily be 
accounted for by their having rounded Cape Farewell from the 
westward. It is well known that formerly considerable numbers 
of Eskimo were living to the eastward of Cape Farewell, but year 
by year stragglers and small parties from these outside savages 
have re-entered the Danish colonies to the westward of Cape Fare- 
well, and become absorbed amongst the civilized Greenlanders. 
This slow but steady return to the southward fully accounts for 
the German Polar Expedition of 1869-70 not meeting with the 
Eskimo tribe seen by Sabine on the east coast. The result of 
my observations amounts to this, that along the shores of Smith 
Sound, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel, three 
degrees north of the present extreme range of the Etah Eskimo, 
the most northern race of men known, there are to be found not 
only traces of Eskimo wanderings, but many proofs of former 
permanent habitation in places where under present climatic con- 
ditions it would be impossible for even the “ Arctic Highlanders” 
now to exist. 
Ursus maritimus.—There is little to tempt this animal from the 
comparatively rich hunting-fields of the north-water of Baffin Bay 
to the dreary shores of Smith Sound and northward. A single 
Bear was killed by Dr. Bessels, of the ‘ Polaris’ Expedition, in 
Petermann Fiord, and foot-marks were observed by members of 
our Expedition near Thank God Harbour; and along the coast 
of Grinnell Land between the winter quarters of the ‘ Alert’ and 
‘ Discovery,’ we also saw foot-marks in the neighbourhood of Cape 
Hayes. At the present day 1 do not imagine the White Bear ever 
enters the Polar Basin through Robeson Channel. The cranium 
of a very large example was found by Captain Markham on the 
northern shores of Grinnell Land in latitude 82° 30’ N., some 
