216 О. HELMS. 
a current-run often mentioned by Petersen, Kililtorajivit. The station 
itself consists only of a few houses, including the dwellings of the trading 
superintendant and the missionary with their families — for a number 
of years the only Danes in East Greenland — and storehouses. 
Even though most of the observations have been made by Johan 
Petersen himself, his notes contain constant reference to the help given 
him by the Greenlanders, who have brought him birds shot here and 
there in the district. From this point of view it has been exceedingly 
fortunate that the five or six hundred Greenlanders who live in the 
district have their dwellings so scattered; some live on islands at the 
mouth of the Sermilik Fjord, others on the large island Cape Dan, out 
to the open sea, and again others are scattered about the Angmagsalik 
Fjord. When Нотм in 1884 counted the inhabitants he found 371, 
spread over twelve different settlements; im 1920 the number had 
increased to 642. It is also of great importance that it is only during 
the winter that the Greenlanders live in one place, whereas in summer 
they travel about in the district to places where the best hunting and 
fishing are to be found. 
The Birds at Angmagsalik.! 
A. Breedins Birds. 
In the foregoing an endeavour has been made to show what the 
natural conditions are at Angmagsalik. The birds have only a short 
spring and summer, but long enough for them to hatch and feed up 
their young before the winter arrives. There is variation enough in the 
landscape and in the vegetation for a number of different species to 
breed; what is mostly lacking is stretches of fens and marshes; there 
is no place of which one can, as Bay writes of the conditions at Scoresby 
Sound, say that the district is actually very similar to Denmark. But, 
despite the somewhat favourable conditions, there are only few species 
of breeding birds, and of each species only few individuals. West Green- 
land has not many breeding birds either, but some of them appear 
in great numbers, in thousands, whereas at Angmagsalik one can barely 
speak of hundreds. There is no great difference from the species which 
breed in West Greenland; they are the usual circumpolar breeding 
birds, with a slight mixture of the fauna of Iceland. 
Among the Passerine Birds we find those familiar to most of Green- 
1 The essay was mainly finished in 1920, but circumstances have prohibited its 
publication before now, 1926. Reference is not made to the newest investigations of 
birds in East Greenland which are also for a greater part still awaiting publication. 
