Animals available as Food in the Arctic Regions. 305 



ing Wellington Channel, has found himself in that portion 

 of the Arctic regions where animals probably exist in greater 

 plenty than in any other. Under these circumstances alone 

 his party could exist as well as other inhabitants of the Polar 

 regions ; but we must not forget that, in addition to the na- 

 tural resources, the} r would in their vessels possess more 

 comfortable and substantial houses than any of the native in- 

 habitants. 



So far as food is concerned, reasonable hope therefore may 

 be entertained that the missing Expedition would not alto- 

 gether suffer by the want of it ; — their fate, however, depends 

 upon other circumstances as well, among which, that dire 

 scourge of mariners, the scurvy, is probably more to be feared 

 than any other. 



My authorities have been the works of the various expe- 

 ditions undertaken in the Arctic regions by the English, 

 Russian, Dutch, and other nations ; the zoological accounts 

 of Richardson, Baer, Wrangell, and others ; also the valu- 

 able papers on the distribution of mammals by Dr Wagner. 

 The meteorological data are chiefly derived from Dove's 

 tables, and the works of Richardson, Sutherland, Middendorf, 

 and others. 



