1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 359 



If SO, it must be exceedingly rare, for since his time no one has been 

 able to obtain or hear of a specimen. We more than suspect, how- 

 ever, that here, as elsewhere, he was only reproducing in a zoological 

 dress the stories of the natives. So little was then known of the 

 zoology of the Arctic regions, that he might well be excused for en- 

 tering such animals in his fauna, there existing no reason why they 

 should not be found in Greenland. If Fabricius could have lived 

 to this day, he would have been the first to erase these from his list. 

 The reason why I think so is this : — Under the head of " Ursi/s 

 liiscus" he has inserted a very doubtful and problematical animal, 

 talked of long before his day, and equally so now, under the name 

 of "Afna7-ok" (" Ursus luscus. Eg.* .33, Cr.f 99, ex descriptione 

 pellis ejus. Cf. Continuation. :|: 287, ubi dicitur subfusca, forsitan 

 etiam veterum Hyaena Torf.§ 82"). This animal seems the same 

 as that which he indicated in his fauna under the name of "Miistela 

 gulo." He describes it as very fierce, corresponding in this respect 

 with the character of the Wolverine. Depending upon the natives 

 being in the habit of distinguishing animals by different names very 

 clearly, he considered that Amarok and Kappik were different ani- 

 mals. Neither of them he appears to know anything about. I found 

 the Greenlanders talking to this day about the Amarok all over 

 G-reenland ; and wonderful stories they tell of its ferocity. It is the 

 terror of the Greenlanders, as Fabricius truly enough remarks; 

 everybody knew about it ; but I could find nobody who had ever 

 seen itj|. Graah^ found the natives of the east coast equally fami- 

 liar with the name of the Amarok ; the name Kappik, however, was 

 unknown in north Greenland. 



Finally I discovered a man in Claushavn who declared he had 

 seen the Amarok ; it hunted in packs, he said ; and this man made 

 no secret of his belief that it was only native dogs which had escaped 

 and returned to their wild state. In proof of this, he told me that, 

 as frequently happens during the annual Reindeer-hunting-season, 

 one of his dogs escaped and could not be captured again. Three 

 years after, one severe winter, when "looking" his fox-traps, he 

 found the identical dog captured, much subdued by hunger, but still 

 very fierce after living for so long a period out of the reach of the 

 merciless lash. It served its master for many a day after in harness. 

 This man described the " Amarok " as all grey. It has been sup- 

 posed to be the Wolf (Canis occidentalis albo-griseus), and to have 

 crossed over the ice in Smith's Sound ; but, from what I have said 

 about the Eskimo Dog, it will be apparent that to distinguish be- 

 tween a wild Dog and a Wolf is a matter of some difficulty. I 

 think, therefore, that you will agree with me that the Wolverine has 



* Description of Greenland, Eng. transl. 



t History of Greenland, Eng. transl. 



X Continuation of the above. 



§ Grcenlandia Antiqua. 



II Mr. Tegner informs me that one of the natives declares that in July 18(>7 

 he saw the marks of the foot of an Amarok at the head of the Tessiursak, an 

 inlet near Claushavn. 



% Lih. cif. p. 90. 



