1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 343 



rican, though I am aware that opposite views are entertained by- 

 naturalists of high eminence. 



Tlie mammahan fauna of Icehmd has no connexion with that of 

 either Greenland or Europe, that island not possessing a single species 

 of mammal indigenous to it ; all have been introduced by man, or, 

 like the Ui-sus maritimus and Vulpes lar/opus, have drifted from 

 Greenland on ice-floes. 



My friend Mr. Andrew Murray * seems to take exception to a 

 Mouse which is said to be found in Iceland, and regarding which 

 wonderful tales are told t; and, contrary to the opinion of Povelsen, 

 whocousiders it Mus sylvaticus, L., and of the intelHgent Icelanders, 

 who, as represented by Sir W. J. Hooker, do not believe in its ex- 

 istence, thinks that it is Myodes torquatus (Jiudsonius, FoTst.-=ffro/i- 

 landicus, IV.). If such is the case, it might hare been brought 

 over on ice from the east coast of Greenland ; but the probability is 

 that it does not exist, and that the only Mice in Iceland are the ones 

 introduced by man, the ordinary Mus decumamis and M, muscidus, 

 almost cosmopolitan in their range. 



From these facts I believe that the island of Iceland is of a newer 

 date than any portion of Scandinavia or Greenland, and, being of a 

 volcanic nature, was formed posterior to the date of the present dis- 

 tribution of land and water in the North Sea. I can see no other 

 conclusion which can be arrived at J. 



4. Notes on the Habits, Distribution, and Synonymy of the Terres- 

 trial Mammalia of Greenland. 



The following notes on certain of the terrestrial species of Mam- 

 malia are not intended as either a complete or systematic history of 

 the species, but merely as stray notes on some points in their history 

 hitherto passed over, and on the species as a Greenland animal. 

 I have delayed entering upon the history of the Marine Mammalia 

 until another time, my observations on these species being too ex- 

 tensive to be included within the limits of one paper ; and, as I 

 shall treat of them on a more comprehensive plan than as mere 

 Greenland species, they do not properly come within the scope of a 

 paper on Greenland Mammals. 



These notes comprehend my own observations during voyages to 

 the Spitzbergen, Iceland, and Jan Mayen sea?, and along the eastern 

 and western shores of Davis's Strait and Baffin's Bay, to near the 

 mouth of Smith's Sound, in 1861. During the past summer I 

 have again visited Danish Greenland for scientific purposes, but have 

 added little or nothing to my former notes, having seen few Mam- 

 malia, except some of the species of Pinnij)edia and a Cetacean or 



* Geograpliie<al Distribution of Mammals (1866). 



t Pennant, 'Ai-ctic Zoology,' lutroduction, p. Ixs ; Hooker's ' Tour iu Iceland,' 

 i. pp. 51-.52. 



\ Vide J. D. Hooker, Linn. Trans. 1862 ; Asa Gray, ' American Journal of 

 Science,' 1862; J. W. Dawson, 'Canadian Naturalist and Geologi.st,' 1862, 

 pp. 33-1-.344; and Murray, 'Geogr. Dist. Mamni.,' for tlie phytogeographical 

 views of the origin of the Greenland flora and fauna at present received. 



