Non-Migration. . 179 



Strait., and Capt. Kellett's squadron in Melville Sound were not 

 stationary until the close of November; and long after that period 

 during spring-tides or in strong gales, there v/as abundant evidence 

 that large spaces of water and weak ice existed aroimd thein ; 

 such, in short, as would be quite sufficient to prevent timorous 

 deer or musk-oxen attempting a journey which would have puzzled 

 «ven an amphibious animal. Addilioral testimony abounds else- 

 where ; the ice of Queen's channel and around the winter quarters 

 of H. M. S, " Pioneer," in Northumberland Sound (1852-53), was 

 even so weak, or else so heavily -packed, at the end of the winter, 

 that it could with difficulty be traversed by our men ; and near 

 Dr Kane's winter quarters, in Smith's Sound, the ice was either 

 so treacherous or so piled up, that his parties could not cross it 

 from Greenland to the western coa^t. 



All this betokened insuperable difficulties in the way of an 

 animal migration, simply from the absence of a highway for the 

 poor brutes to pass from ^S'' to OS'' North latitude, a distance of 

 about 600 miles straight as the crow flies. Then we had the fact 

 of the reindeer wintering in Greenland; for not even the most 

 profound believer in an animal exodus had ever accused tije poor 

 creatures of embarking on the bosom of the waters of the Atlantic 

 or Davis's Strait, and proceeding in the autumn to Labrador; 

 moreover, weknew that the Dutch and Russian fishermen winter- 

 ing in Spitzbergen in the old time, found the reindeer a'lways 

 there ; at last, further doubt upon the subject was removed by the 

 abundant testimony which poured in upon us between 1850 and 

 1854; and th.e question is novi^ placed beyond all doubt that the 

 d-eer, musk-ox, hare, and lemming of the arctic arcljipelago do 

 winter in those islands. 



This work not being a disquisition on natural history, it would 

 not interest the reader to quote at length all the passages upon 

 the subject from the different journals of officers lately engaged 

 on artic service ; some remarked one fact, others another ; so tliat 

 by plodding over the ponderous blue-books, a very fair collection 

 of data may be collected. Our gleanings are as follow :- — 



In the depth of the winter of 1850-51, deer, or recent traces of 

 animals, were seen near the respective winter quarters of Captain 

 M'Clure, Captain Austin, and Captain Penny ; and in the early 

 S:pring of 1851, when the temperature was 40*^ — , Lieut. Aldrich 

 observed reindeer, white as driven snow, grazing upon what h« 

 described as stony plains covered two feet deep with snow-, and 



