R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 27 



The Eeindeer is often shot in situations where it is impossible 

 for the hunter to carry the meat down, when it becomes a prey 

 to wild beasts and birds. The quantity of meat thus lost is 

 enormous, independently of much more wastefully destroyed, as 

 described in the first portion of these notes. It is so great that 

 during the period first referred to, fully one half was thrown 

 away, and during the last period a quarter. The tallow in a 

 large deer will weigh from 8 to 12 lbs. The tongues are first cut 

 out, after the reindeer is killed. About 3,000 to 4,000 lbs, of 

 reindeer-horn must be used by the natives in South Greenlana. 

 The trader at Holsteensborg has (or at least had a few years 

 ago) more than 60,000 lbs. of it lying on the ground in a heap.* 



I have gone into the history of the Reindeer in Greenland at 

 some length, because I found that though the Reindeer in Lapland 

 is familiar to many, yet the animal in its wild state is much less 

 known, and I have seen most erroneous statements regarding its 

 distribution in Greenland, 



12. [Ovis ARIES, Linn. 



Greenl, Sana. 



At present it is only known in the district of Julianeshaab, to 

 the number of between 20 and 30. It was already introduced 

 in Fabricius's* day. In the summer they feed in the valleys, and 

 in the winter are kept under shelter. They cannot, therefore 

 (nor, indeed, can any of the colonist fauna), be said to be accli* 

 matized.] 



13. [Bos TAURUS, Linn. 



Greenl. Umimak. 



There are 30 or 40 Cattle grazing about in the southern 

 valleys during the summer, and kept at stall in the winter. Some 

 of the more enterprising natives also keep a few cows. I was 

 told by the Danish residents that, though there was quite enough 

 grass occasionally found round the settlements in the summer, 

 even further north, they could not be kept on account of the dogs. 

 The old Icelandic sagas describe the Norsemen as keeping herds 

 of cattle in the valleys of Greenland up to the middle ages; and 

 that the dairy produce was so highly valued that it was sent 

 to Norway for the use of the Royal table. The place where 

 they prosper best now is just on the site of one of these ancient 

 colonies. If any were behind when the colonies were exter- 

 minated by the Eskimo, who about this period make their 

 appearance in South Greenland, they must have died out, or, 

 more likely, were slaughtered by the natives (if a people who 

 to all appearance, were only wandering hordes who had now for 

 the first time crossed Melville Bay from the north, can be so 

 styled) ; for when Greenland was again visited by the Europeans' 



* For many of the foregoing statements I am indebted to my friend Dr. 

 Rink, formerly Royal Inspector of South Greenland, and at present Director 

 of the Greenland Board of Trade, and whose work (Gronland geographisk og 

 statistisk, &c.) is the standard on all subjects connected with that country. 



