THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. I.] SEPTEMBER, 1877. [No. 9. 
ON THE MAMMALIA OF NORTH GREENLAND 
AND GRINNELL LAND.-« 
By H. W. Fempen, F.G.S.,.C.M.Z.S. 
Lepus glacialis—The Northern Hare was found, though in scanty 
numbers, along the shores of Grinnell Land, and its footprints were 
seen on the snow-clad ice of the Polar Sea by Captain Markham 
and Lieut. Parr, in lat. 83° 10’ N., a distance about twenty miles 
north of the nearest land. In the autumn of 1875 three or four 
examples were shot in the neighbourhood of our winter-quarters, 
lat. 82° 27’ N., and as soon as a glimmer of light enabled us to 
make out their tracks in the snow we were off in pursuit of them. 
I find from my journal that on the 14th February, two weeks 
before the sun reappeared at mid-day, the temperature minus 56°, 
I was hunting for these animals, and started one from its burrow. 
-This hole was about four feet in length, and scraped horizontally 
into a snowdrift. I have no doubt the same burrow is regularly 
occupied, as this one was discoloured by the feet of the animal 
passing in and out, and a quantity of hair was sticking to the sides; 
all around the Hare had been scratching up the snow and feeding 
on Saxifraga oppositifolia. Even where exposed by the wind, 
this hardy plant had delicate green buds showing on the brown 
withered surface of the last year’s growth. The Hare does not 
tear up this plant by the roots, but nibbles off the minute green 
shoots. Following a Hare in the twilight with a temperature ninety 
degrees below the freezing-point may not appear a very desirable 
* Concluded from p. 321. 
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