1S68.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 3-19 



follows his lead. En passant I may remark that dog-driving is by 

 no means an easily acquired or a light labour: In North Greenland 

 and among the wild Arctic higlilanders of Cape York and Smith's 

 Sound, dogs are also valuable assistants, by attacking the Polar 

 Bear while the hunter plants his spears in the animal*. They are 

 also used a little in Seal -hunting. Their flesh is also highly appre- 

 ciated, but rather too valuable for anything except an occasional 

 dainty. The skin is highly valued for socks, and that of the pups for 

 winter clothing ; but so scarce have they become, that it is now very 

 hard to raise enough for an annrak (jumper), and one of our party 

 paid 18 rigsdaler (at'2) for enough to make an overcoat. No longer, 

 as in Giesecke's dayf, is it rejected as an article of trade on account 

 of its disagreeable odour. 



[4. Felis domestica, Briss. 



Grcenl. Kitsungoak. 



The Domestic Cat has been kept in Greenland ever since the 

 Danish women came, and it follows them in all their sojournings 

 north and south. In Fabricius's day it was already not uncommon. 

 At present there are many in Julianeshaab district, where mice are 

 quite abundant and troublesome.] 



5. Myodes TORauATus (Pall.), Keys. & Bias. 



This Lemming was found by Capt. Scoresby, in the year 1822, 

 near Scoresby's Sound, on the east coast of Greenland, lat. 69°, and 

 was described by the late Professor Traill, in the Appendix to Scores- 

 by's Voyage to Greenland, as a new species under the name of Mus 

 grcenlandicus. From a careful examination of the original and only 

 specimen, now in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, I am 

 inclined to believe, with Middendorff'J, that it is not distinct from 

 those already described, and that the Myodes hudsonius of Forster 

 {Mus hudsovms, Forster in Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 379 ; Lemmus 

 hudsonius. Sab., Parry's Voyage, p. clxxxv) and the Mus grcen- 

 landicus, Tr. {Myodes grcenlandicus. Wag. and J. E. Gray §, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, xvi. 1848, p. 43, and Id. in Rae's Narrative, 18.50), 

 are identical with the Siberian Myodes torquatus (Pall.), Keys. & Bias. 



It can only be classed as a very rare and local (possibly accidental) 

 member of the fauna of Greenland, as it has never since been found 

 in the country ; Graah || did not see it in his two years' journey, nor 

 even hear of its existence. No doubt the east coast of Greenland is 

 almost unapproachable for ice, and has never been visited since 

 Graah's day, except for a little way round Cape Farewell. Whalers, 

 however, have been known to have landed near Scoresby's Sound ; but 



* Vide an interesting account in Kane's ' Arctic Explorations.' 



t Giesecke, article " Greenland," in ' Brewster's Encyclopsedia.' 



X Sib. Eeise, II. ii. 1853, p. 87, pis. 4-7 & 10. 



§ Arvicola grcmlandice, Eich. I.e. 1.34; vide, also Schreber, ' Saugethiere,' iii. 

 p. 604; Giebel, 'Die Siiugethiere' &c. (1859), p. 605. 



II Narrative of an Expedition to tlie East Coast of Greenland, Engl, transl. 

 (1837). The original Danish edition in 4to (Undersogelses-Eeise til Ostkysten 

 af Gronland, 1832), however, is much superior in many respects. 



