28 E. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 



no cattle were found. It is somewhat curious that the Green- 

 landers apply the Eskimo name of the Musk-ox to the domestic 

 Ox, showing a recollection of the existence of the former in the 

 land they came from, though it is no longer a native of Greenland 

 to the south of Cape York.] 



14. [Capra hircus, Linn. 



Greenl. Sauarsuk. 



As far back as the days of Fabricius, the Goat had been intro- 

 duced into the southern settlements of Greenland, and was found 

 profitable ; they feed on the grass which springs about the old 

 Eskimo camping-places in the summer, and are housed in the 

 winter. I am told that they will eat dried Arctic salmon, if 

 nothing better is forthcoming. It is not kept north of Hol- 

 steensborg, as it is found impossible to keep it where there are 

 troops of savage dogs ; and it is accordingly only found about the 

 settlements south of that, to the number of about 100.] 



15. \^Addit.'] MusTELA ERMiNEA, Linn. The Ermine was 

 found by the Germans on the east coast; see Peters in *'Die 

 zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt," vol. ii. p. 157. It is entirely 

 unknown in West Greenland. 



5. On some of the doubtful or mythical Animals of Greenland, 



Otto Fabricius used to spend his summers roaming about with 

 the Eskimo, until he had learned to manage a kayak and strike a 

 Seal with a skill which few Europeans can ever acquire. On one 

 of these excursions he found in " Sildefjord, north of the colony of 

 Fredrikshaab," a piece of a skull, about which the native told him 

 something ; and from what they related to him, and v/hat he 

 thought himself, he entered no less than two species in the Green- 

 land fauna, •' Trichechus manatus " (^Rhytina gigas) and *' Phoca 

 ztrsina" {Callorhi?ius ursi?ius,) being, apparently, not certain to 

 which it belonged. The Greenlanders called this animal AuvekcB- 

 jak, or Auikcrjak, and said it was like a Walrus and broke things 

 easily to pieces. He was sure that the piece of skull belonged to 

 the first of these animals ; and again he repeats the same under the 

 head of Phoca ursina ; so that it is now difficult to arrive at any 

 conclusion regarding the species of animal to which it belonged. 

 However, I think there can be but one opinion, that neither the 

 Sea-bear nor the Rhytina can be entered in the Greenland fauna 

 on such fragmentary evidence. The confused stories of the Green- 

 landers can give the critic no great hold. 



This piece of cranium is not now to be found in Fabricius's 

 Museum. In a posthumous zoological manuscript, entitled " Zoolo- 

 giske Samlinger," written in Copenhagen during the period between 

 1808 and 1814, and now preserved in the Royal Library, he has 

 again spoken about the Auvekcejak (Bd. ii. p. 298, No. 286), and 

 has thus written about the skull he found in Greenland : — 



*' The head which I found was full of holes, and looked like that 

 of a Walrus (No. 82), without tusks." 



There were many long small teeth in the head (Reinhardt, op. 

 cii., p. 6.) ; and if such was the case, we cannot be wrong in 



