24 R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 



crease, on account of the unmerciful way in which it is slaughtered 

 by the natives for the skin alone, as is the buffalo in America. 

 The skins arc a great article of commerce ; sometimes they sell in 

 Copenhagen at from 3 to 7 rigsdaler {6s. 9d. to 155. 9c?.) each, 

 according to the quality. (The natives get in Greenland only 

 72 skillings (Is. 6d.) for them). The yearly production used to 

 be in the summer time from 10,000 to 20.000, but it is now on 

 the decrease. 



Dr. Hayes fed his party luxuriously on them all winter at Port 

 Foulke in Smith's Sound, not many miles from where Kane's 

 party starved a few years before. Behind Holsteensborg are 

 valleys full of Reindeer ; and I have heard tales of people climbing 

 the hills in that vicinity, and looking down into glens where the 

 Reindeer were so numerous that they might be supposed to be the 

 herds of a Avealthy Laplander. Ten thousand skins were shipped 

 from that post some years ago. They are slaughtered indiscrimi- 

 nately by the natives — these improvident people, in nine cases out 

 of ten, leaving the hides and flesh, and only taking the tongues. 

 They are bad enough shots ; and the Danish traders supply them 

 with powder at less than prime cost (viz. 36 skillings, or 9d. 

 per lb.), with a view to increase the produce of the hunt ; but this 

 ammunition is wasted in a most reckless manner. 



On the way to and from these hunts up the fjords (" the in- 

 terior country," though really the natives know of no place off 

 the coast more than the Europeans do), with that savage desire 

 to kill every living thing, ducks are shot and left lying, or, if 

 they feel hungry, they will tear off the titbits ; a ptarmigan will 

 be shot sitting on its eggs, and the ball cut out of its body to be 

 again used in this murderous sport. There is no necessity for it, 

 for at this time they are abundantly supplied with food, even to 

 excess. It is, however, the season of sport and fun, looked forward 

 to by the natives much in the same light as we do to our grouse- 

 shooting or deer-stalking, and is about as profitable to all parties 

 concerned. In order to pursue this they leave the more lucrative 

 seal-fishery, and neglect to lay in a winter's supply of food ; so 

 that when the " banyan •" days come they bitterly regret their 

 folly, and weary for the bleached carcases up the frozen fjords. 

 Notwithstanding this, regularly as the season comes round, they 

 are off again to the shooting from far and near, and repeat the 

 same improvident course ; nor, if they like it, has anybody a right 

 to complain. In all verity, enjoyments few enough tall to the lot 

 of these hyperborean hunters. 



However, the effect of this indiscriminate slaun^hter is now beinsj 

 felt in the decrease of the Reindeer in many parts where they 

 were once common. They are no longer found on Disco Island, 

 as in the days of Cranz and Fabricius. Indeed there are now 

 very few shot in mid- Greenland, and many of the natives are 

 giving up the hunt for them altogether. During the summer 

 of 1867 only five Reindeers were killed in the district of Riten- 

 benk (lat. 69° 45' N.). The yearly average had been about 20 or 

 30 ; but the Governor informs me that in his opinion reindeer- 

 hunting days are nearly over in that section of the country^ 



