Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/343

Rh distance from present high-water level. I think it is not improbable that this specimen may have been washed out of the mud-beds which fill up the valleys of that region to an altitude of several hundred feet, and from which I have taken the remains of Seal, Musk Ox and other animals, with abundance of drift-wood and the shells of most of the Mollusca now inhabiting the adjacent sea. If I am right in this surmise, there is no saying from what distance or from what direction this cranium may have been brought on an ice-raft.

Mustela erminea.—The Ermine has followed the Lemming, Myodes torquatus, throughout its northern migrations to the shores of the Polar Basin, and crossing Robeson Channel in company with this little rodent has invaded North Greenland, where Lieutenant Beaumont, R.N., secured an example during his sledge journey in latitude 82° 15' N. It doubtless extends as far south on the eastern shore of Greenland, where it was found by the Germans, as the range of the Lemming. I obtained specimens in Grinnell Land as far north as 82° 30', and several examples were shot near Discovery Bay. It is hunted and killed by the Arctic Fox. We noticed the tracks of this little animal in the snow on the reappearance of sun-light, and remarked that it is infested by a tenia.

Canis lupus.—This animal was not met with by Dr. Bessels in Hall Land, and consequently I hardly expected to meet with it still further north in Grinnell Land. However, on the 1st April, 1876, several Wolves made their appearance in the neighbourhood of the winter quarters of the 'Alert.' They were evidently following a small herd of Musk-ox, whose tracks and traces were observed in the vicinity. That the Wolves are able at times to secure these animals was shown by their droppings being composed chiefly of Musk-ox wool and splinters of bone. Several of our sportsmen started in pursuit of these Wolves, but with one exception they did not allow any one to approach them within three or four hundred yards. The exceptional Wolf followed Captain Markham, who was unarmed, for more than two miles, no doubt attracted by the retriever bitch that accompanied that officer. These Wolves were larger than the largest of our Eskimo dogs, and of a light gray colour, with long fur and drooping tail. They agreed well with the description by Richardson of Canis lupus-occidentalis. The following day, April 2nd, the Wolves still continued in the neighbourhood of the ship, and at intervals their long, melancholy, but