19 



they are very emaciated which is connected with their being 

 without food for a long time in winter. The commercial manager 

 Petersen, who has given so many good informations on Green- 

 land animals, tried a year to gain knowledge of how many bears 

 had been seen in the district, and how many had been killed. 

 He got to the strange result that с 50 had been killed that 

 year, but more than 200 had been seen. Most of them sought 

 northward along the coast, of course, with numerous turns 

 into the inlets ; but their main direction was always northward. 

 Probably they try to reach the old places on Blosseville coast, 

 from where they have mostly started. Thus a regular migration 

 of bears with the floating ice takes place from the North to 

 the southern part of the east coast of Greenland (and round to 

 the west coast). Then the bears again seek northward along 

 the coast ; and the reason of this wandering is probably the same 

 as of the wandering that takes place inward, through Scoresby 

 Sund, and outward again, that is the bear's search of food. 



ülustela erminea L. Ermine. 



The discovery of the Ermine in East Greenland, is due to 

 the second German arctic expedition; in the autumn of 1869, 

 Dr. Copeland saw its traces in the snow on Sattelberg, and in 

 the beginning of June 1870, one was killed in Kuhn Island, 

 finally another was killed in Franz Joseph's Fjord in August 

 1870. During the expedition of Ryder, fresh traces of it were 

 seen in the snow, on the inlet-ice at Danmarks 0, on 

 November 11, 1891 (Bay), also many other times its traces 

 were seen, but the animal itself was never seen. 



While we were in Turner Sund, Ditlevsen, on July 25, 

 brought the glad news, that he had found a place where 8 

 ermines lived; for some hours he had been observing the small, 

 nice animals; they ran about him, snuffing at his boots, and 

 putting their noses into his gun-barrel. Having no small shot 

 for our guns on board. Master Lyhne, who had got a par- 



2* 



