14 R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 



examined the question, that no Lemming exists in Iceland, and 

 that the only indigenous Mammal is the Mus sylvaticus, showing 

 that the fauna is essentially European, and not American as 

 Murray seemed to suppose.* 



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 distribution of land and water in the North Sea ; if 

 indeed it, and other detached islands in the North Sea, are not 

 fragments of a more or less continuous land communication, 

 which, when the Miocene flora flourished in the Arctic regions, 

 united Greenland with Eurojpe.f 



4. Notes on the Habits, Distribution, and Synonomy of the 

 Terrestrial Mammalia of Greenland. 



The following notes on certain of the terrestrial species of 

 Mammalia 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 extensive to be included within the limits 

 of one paper ; and, as I shall treat of them on a more compre- 

 hensive 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 Spitzbergeii, Iceland, and Jan Mayen seas, 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 (1867) I have again (in company with Messrs. E. 

 Whymper and Tegner) visited Danish Greenland for scientific 

 purposes, but have added little or nothing to my former notes, 

 having seen few Mammalia, except some of the species of Pin- 

 nipedia and a Cetacean or two in the sea ; and, our travels ex- 

 tending over but a limited portion of the vicinity of Disco Bay, 

 we had but few opportunities of adding to our knowledge of their 

 habits. 



I was fortunate enough, however, to obtain the assistance of 

 my friends Dhrr. Knud Gelmeyden Fleischer, Carl Bolbroe, 

 and Octavius Neilsen, whose long acquaintance with the Eskimo 

 lanfjuage enabled me to discover some of the errors which Fab- 

 ricius fell into in deciphering the mythical species ; and our 

 intelligent travelling companion Hr. Anthon P. Tegner kindly 



* Steeustrup, " Den oprsenda islandbke Landpattedyr-faunas Karakter," 

 &;c, Vidensk. Meddel. Naturhist. Forening i Kjobeuh., 1867, p. 51 ; An- 

 nals Kat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. iii., p. 445. 



f See J. D. Hooker, Linn. Trans., vol. xxiii., p. 251 ; Asa Gray, " Amer. 

 Journ. Science," 1862 ; J. W. Dawson, " Canadian Naturalist and Geologist," 

 1862, pp. 334-344 ; and Murray, " Geogr. Dist. Mamm.," p. 37, for the phyto- 

 geographical vicAvs of the origin of the Greenland flora and fauna at present 

 received. 



