Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/379



Lepus glacialis.—The Northern Hare was found, though in scanty numbers, along the shores of Grinnell Land, and its footprints were seen on the snow-clad ice of the Polar Sea by Captain Markham and Lieut. Parr, in lat. 83° 10' N., a distance about twenty miles north of the nearest land. In the autumn of 1875 three or four examples were shot in the neighbourhood of our winter-quarters, lat. 82° 27' N., and as soon as a glimmer of light enabled us to make out their tracks in the snow we were off in pursuit of them. I find from my journal that on the 14th February, two weeks before the sun reappeared at mid-day, the temperature minus 56°, I was hunting for these animals, and started one from its burrow. This hole was about four feet in length, and scraped horizontally into a snowdrift. I have no doubt the same burrow is regularly occupied, as this one was discoloured by the feet of the animal passing in and out, and a quantity of hair was sticking to the sides; all around the Hare had been scratching up the snow and feeding on Saxifraga oppositifolia. Even where exposed by the wind, this hardy plant had delicate green buds showing on the brown withered surface of the last year's growth. The Hare does not tear up this plant by the roots, but nibbles off the minute green shoots. Following a Hare in the twilight with a temperature ninety degrees below the freezing-point may not appear a very desirable