208 О. Hens. 
life — sparse, it is true — that is found here, and has also collected and 
prepared birds. It is worthy of mention, too, that Johan Petersen’s 
work to this end has exclusively been for the purpose of study and 
without any pecuniary advantage whatever. 
Johan Petersen has been connected with Angmagsalik as long as 
the place has been known to Europeans. As quite a youth he took part 
in 1883—85 in G. Horm's Konebaad (Greenland skin-boat) expedition, 
the objective of which was actually the Angmagsalik district; its wintering 
place was near to where the colony was later founded. Afterwards he 
spent a year on the southern part of the east coast, where attempts 
were made to establish a trading station at Itivdlek, in lat. 60° N. When 
the colony of Angmagsalik in 1894 was founded on its present spot, 
he became its superintendant, a post which he held for twenty-one years, 
— from 1894 till 1915. In all that time he was twice home in Denmark 
where he finally returned in 1915. From August 1923 till October 1924 
he again spent а year up there. 
During the whole of his sojourn in Angmagsalik Petersen made 
observations of birds and, in the ordinary diary he kept, made notes 
as to their occurrence, breeding, time of migration, and so on. All these 
ornithological observations he sent home to the author of this work, 
and they form a valuable material which, after use, will be placed 
in the Zoological Museum. In addition he has all the time collected 
bird-skins, both those of the more common species and those of the 
more rare and casual guests, prepared the skins and sent them home 
as gifts to the Zoological Museum, which thus owns a collection of 
really unique character. 
Portions of the material which Petersen has in the course of years sent 
home — notes and bird-skins — have been prepared and published at 
various times, here and there; a list of what has been published earlier 
will be given further on. Of the last material to come home, from 1909 
till 1915 and from 1923 till 1924, nothing has been made public beyond 
a brief report of а few rare species. Through Petersen’s labours there 
is now so voluminous а material that one can obtain а clear idea of the 
bird life at Angmagsalik as а whole and of its changes with the seasons. 
We know most of what there is to know about the scarce stationary 
birds and their conditions; we know the arrival and departure of the 
migratory birds, and we have information about the surprisingly numer- 
ous, quite casual, roving guests which have put in an appearance at 
Angmagsalik. There is such an abundance of material that we not only 
learn what the bird-life has been in some years, but realise what may 
be called the normal occurrence of the birds and the many departures 
which are due to special climatic conditions in one or another year. 
The other animal life at Angmagsalik, both lower and higher, as well 
as the vegetation, have been thoroughly investigated and described 
