R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 25 



In the districts of Jakobshavn, Clavshavn, and Christianshaab 

 I did not learn that one had been killed. At Clavshavn a few- 

 natives went out hunting, but met with bad weather, and re- 

 turned for good, having only seen two animals altogether, and 

 shot nothing. 



In the southern portion of the country more are seen, not so 

 much on the coast as up the valleys by the fjords. It is in May 

 or June that most of the natives leave their winter houses and go 

 reindeer-hunting. When they do dry any meat, they cover it up 

 in caches. The dogs are not taken along with them. In old times, 

 even making every allowance for exaggeration, the Reindeer 

 seems to have been very numerous. In the Icelandic ** Sagas " 

 they are spoken of as having been very numerous in the OEster 

 Bygd. 



Four hundred years ago the natives seem by these accounts to 

 have hunted the Reindeer much in that section generally sup- 

 posed to be the site of the QEster Bygd (viz., Julianeshaab dis- 

 trict). At the present day they have left that district and it is 

 now nearly sixty years since any have been shot there. Latterly 

 the hunting has been better in Greenland (south). From 1840 

 to 1845 many were got ; and within the last few years they seem 

 (if we might judge by the produce of the hunt) to be on the 

 increase. This, however, is, doubtless, owing a good deal to the 

 use of the rifle ; but it is very questionable whether this will not 

 again decrease their numbers as it seems to have done elsewhere. 

 Necessarily we have no better data to go upon than that so many 

 skins have been traded ; but, if this is to be received as evidence, 

 more have been traded of late years. 



When the hunting was at its best it was at the positions where 

 the country was broadest, or where the great mer de glace of the 

 interior was most distant from the coast viz. Holsteensborg, 

 Sukkertoppen, Godthaab, and Fiskernasesset. Now there are 

 \&rj few killed at the last-named place. Godthaab also yields 

 few ; but the Holsteensborg and Sukkertoppen natives have taken 

 a good many of late. At Holsteensborg (formerly mentioned as 

 a favourite lacality) the hunting-ground is behind the large inlets, 

 where the ice lies far back, and where land most free from ice has 

 been found. The Reindeer, living in very large herds, require 

 always to be on the look-out for an extensive feeding-range ; and 

 it has been observed that they are going south, in the direction of 

 Julianeshaab, and individuals have been annually shot not far 

 from Fredrikshaab. In order to hunt the Reindeer, the natives 

 go every year, in the month of June, from the southern districts 

 to the two northern districts in the Southern Inspectorate, and 

 return in September. A good number are also shot in the winter 

 time ; and not unfrequently, in very snowy winters, they have 

 been known to come down close to the settlements, and the natives 

 have shot them standing in their doorways. The story of the 

 Reindeer going into the interior in the winter is founded on erro- 

 neous notions of what the interior is. They no doubt go a little 

 way into the valleys ; but as for going into the interior, that is a 

 physical impossibility, for the interior is merely one wide frozen 



