The Zoologist/3rd series, vol 1 (1877)/Issue 9/On the Mammalia of North Greenland, and Grinnell Land

by Henry Wemyss Feilden

 

THE ZOOLOGIST

 

THIRD SERIES.

 

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ON THE MAMMALIA OF NORTH GREENLAND
AND GRINNELL LAND.^[1]

By H.W. Feilden, F.G.S., C.M.Z.S.

 

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 occupation, yet my journal, written at the time, records it as a pleasant day, and mentions the glow of light which at meridian marked the south, where the planet Venus was decreasing in brilliancy, and stars of the first magnitude had disappeared at noon, warming the heart with the genial hope of returning sunlight. On the 19th February a Hare was shot by Dr. Moss: it was a male, and weighed nine pounds and a half; and another was obtained on the 20th. I find the following reference to this animal in my note-book of the 18th May, 1876:—"Camp Westward Ho! Valley. Saw two Hares to-day, which I managed to secure: one was a female and contained eight young ones. These Arctic Hares are quaint-looking animals when disturbed. They stand erect on their hind legs, fore feet tucked in close to their bodies, then look around, and if not frightened recommence feeding; if startled they make off in a series of bounds, generally with one fore leg lifted up. This gives their tracks in the snow the appearance of having been made by a three-legged animal." By the end of July the young were nearly as large as their parents, and were pure white, save the tips of the ears, which were mouse-gray, with a small streak of the same colour passing down from the apex of the head to the snout. The adults have the ears tipped with black. The number of young that we found in gravid females varied from seven to eight, which is much in excess of that produced by Lepus variabilis in Great Britain, and from which naturalists have found difficulty in separating the Arctic species. Fabricius records the fact of this animal in Greenland having eight young ones. Near Lincoln Bay, in lat. 82° 8' N., a Hare was shot on the 31st August, 1875, with a very distorted skull, the nasal bones being twisted to the right hand, the incisors of the upper jaw being deflected in the same direction. In the lower jaw only the left incisor was developed, and that protruded in a nearly horizontal direction. This specimen, though in good condition, was small, and weighed only five pounds and a half; another, killed the same day, nine pounds. They were both pure white, with tips of the ear black. We find, therefore, Lepus glacialis inhabiting the most northern land yet visited, and attaining its normal weight, eight to ten pounds, under apparency very adverse circumstances. Still I must say it is sparsely diffused, and we found that after killing a pair or two out of each valley that afforded any vegetation, the race seemed to be extirpated in that district, and I imagine it will take several years to restock the area over which we hunted along the northern shore of Grinnell Land. Examples examined by me contained many parasitical worms (Filaria) in the large intestine.

Ovibos moschatus.—The attention of many distinguished naturalists has been given to the history of this animal, but the most important and exhaustive essay on the subject is that by Professor Boyd Dawkins, published in the volume of the Palæontological Society for 1871. There is an excellent article on the Musk-ox in the history of the German Arctic Expedition of 1869–70, and Dr. R. Brown, in his exhaustive paper on the Mammalian Fauna of Greenland, reprinted in the 'Admiralty Manual' of 1875 (from Proc. Zool. Soc), gives full information in regard to the past and present range of this animal in Greenland. On my return from the Arctic Regions I was able to place in the hands of Dr. James Murie a few small portions of the stomach and other organs, so that before long we shall obtain some further insight into its anatomy from that accomplished physiologist. My regret is that the material given to Dr. Murie was extremely limited in amount. The fossil remains of Ovibos found in Siberia, North America, Germany, France and England have been determined by naturalists as identical with the species now found living in the northern regions of the American continent and the most northern and eastern shores of Greenland, whilst most of the larger Mammalia of the Pleistocene period, with which the Musk-ox was associated, have passed away. The Musk-ox, being truly an Arctic mammal, doubtless travelled northward as the glacial ice-cap contracted; but in Europe and Asia this animal found its limit of withdrawal bounded by the mainlands of the Old World. No trace of it has been discovered in Spitzbergen or Franz Joseph Land; and the reasonable conclusion is that the great extent of sea which separates these groups of islands from the continents, formed an insuperable obstacle to its progress in that direction. Doubtless its remains are to be found in the New Siberian Islands, and there is no valid reason why it should not still inhabit Kellett Land. So far as we know, however, the Musk-ox living on the Arctic shores of Asia had no inaccessible retreats analogous to the Parry Archipelago of America, and consequently when brought into collision with man must have quickly disappeared. Towards the close of the last Glacial period, when the Straits of Behring were doubtless as choked with ice as the passage now is between Banks' Land and Melville Island, there could have been no great obstacle to prevent the passage of the Musk-ox from the Old World to the New; but whether its course of migration was from Asia to America, or contrariwise, there can be no question that on the latter continent it found a congenial home. Its remains have been discovered in greater or less quantities from Escholtz Bay on the west to the shores of Lancaster Sound, whilst the animal still inhabits the Barren-lands of the American continent. Even in this wilderness, sparsely inhabited by Eskimo, its southern range is slowly contracting, whilst, according to Richardson, the Mackenzie is now its western limit. Melville Island and other lands to the north of the American continent have proved a safe asylum to the Musk-ox, and there it will continue to propagate its species, undisturbed save by the casual appearance of Arctic voyagers. From the islands of the Parry group its range northwards across the eightieth parallel into Ellesmere and Grinnell Land, as high as the eighty-third parallel to the shores of the Polar Sea, is extremely natural; and Robeson Channel, which has presented no obstacle to the progress of the Lemming and Ermine, has also been crossed by the Musk-ox, the 'Polaris' Expedition as well as ours finding it in Hall Land. After crossing the strait between the American islands, and Greenland, the Musk-ox appears to have followed the coasts both in a northerly and southerly direction, its range in Greenland to the southward being stopped by the great glaciers of Melville Bay. At one time it must have been abundant on the West Greenland coast as far south as the seventy-eighth parallel, for Dr. Kane found numerous remains in the vicinity of Renssellaer Bay, and Dr. Hayes found a skull in Chester Valley at the head of Foulke Fiord. During the single day we explored in the neighbourhood of that locality two skulls were found by members of our Expedition. The destruction of these animals would, I think, rapidly follow on the appearance of the Eskimo at Port Foulke; for I imagine few animals are less fitted to elude the wiles of the hunter. There can be no question that the Musk-oxen found by the Germans on the east coast of Greenland are descendants of those that crossed Robeson Channel, rounded the north of the Greenland continent, and extended their range southward until they met with some physical obstruction that barred their further progress, as has also been the case on the western shore of Greenland. Dr. Robert Brown, in his 'Essay on the Physical Structure of Greenland,' published by the Geographical Society for the use of the recent Arctic Expedition, thus refers to this range of the Musk-ox, Lemming and Ermine:—"These illustrations, though seemingly trivial in themselves, are yet of extreme zoo-geographical interest as tending to show that the Greenland land must end not far north of latitude 82° or 83°." In the month of August, 1875, we met with abundant traces of the Musk-ox in the Valley of the Twin Glacier, leading inland from the shores of Buchanan Strait. I noticed where these animals had been sheltering themselves under the lee of big boulders, as sheep do on bleak hill-sides, and that the same spots were frequently occupied was shown by the holes tramped out by the animals, and the large quantities of their long soft wool which was scattered around. Musk-oxen were obtained in considerable numbers near to the winter-quarters of the 'Discovery,' over forty being shot; but in the extreme north of Grinnell Land, nearer to the winter-quarters of the 'Alert,' they were much scarcer, only six having been obtained by the crew of that vessel, whilst at Thank God Harbour, where the 'Polaris' Expedition obtained over a score, only one was seen and shot. The range of the Musk-ox in Grinnell Land is confined to the coast line and the valleys debouching thereon. It is an animal by no means fitted to travel through the deep soft snow which blocks up the heads of all these valleys. On one occasion, in Westward Ho! Valley, in the month of May, Lieut. Egerton, R.N., and I came across fresh tracks of this animal in soft snow, through which it had sunk belly-deep, ploughing out a path, and leaving fragments of wool behind in its struggles. Its progression under such circumstances is similar to that of a snowplough. We noticed that spots on hill-sides where the snow lay only a few inches deep had been selected for feeding grounds, the snow having been pushed away in furrows banked up at the end, as if the head and horns of the animal had been used for the task; a few blades of grass and roots of willow showed on what they had been feeding. The dung of the Musk-ox, though usually dropped in pellets like sheep or deer, is very often undistinguishable from that of the genus Bos. No person, however, watching this animal in a state of nature, could fail to see how essentially ovine are its actions. When alarmed they gather together like a flock of sheep herded by a collie dog, and the way in which they pack closely together and follow blindly the vacillating leadership of the old ram is unquestionably sheep-like. When thoroughly frightened they take to the hills, ascending precipitous slopes, and scaling rocks with great agility. How the Musk-ox obtains food during the long Arctic night is very extraordinary; but that it is a resident throughout the year cannot be doubted, as a month after the reappearance of sun-light, in the end of March, and at the very coldest season of the year, we found the fresh traces of these animals in the vicinity of our winter-quarters. I am quite sure that the number of Musk-oxen in Grinnell Land is extremely limited, whilst the means of subsistence can only supply the wants of a fixed number; consequently, after an invasion such as ours, when every animal capable of affording food was ruthlessly but necessarily slaughtered, it must take some years to restock the ground. I lay stress upon this point, because the programme for future American research by Smith Sound contemplates the establishment of colonies at various points, one especially suggested being the winter-quarters of the 'Discovery' in Lady Franklin Sound, and some reference has been made to the abundance of game likely to be obtained there. The cause of the disagreeable odour which frequently taints the flesh of these animals has received no elucidation from my observations. It does not appear to be confined to either sex, or to any particular season of the year; for a young unweaned animal killed at its mother's side, and transferred within an hour to the stew-pans, was as rank and objectionable as any. The flesh of some of these animals of which I have partaken was dark, tender, and as well-flavoured as that of four-year old South-down mutton. Richardson states that the food of the Musk-ox is at one season of the year grass, at another lichen. Leaves and stems of the willow, with grasses, were in the stomachs I examined. This animal is infested with two species of worms, a Tænia and a Filaria.

Rangifer tarandus.—The Reindeer was not actually met with by our Expedition to the northward of Port Foulke, but its newly-shed horns were found in the Valley of the Twin Glacier, Buchanan Strait. I came across a skeleton recently picked by wolves in the neighbourhood of Radmore Harbour, lat. 80° 27' N. At various points along the coast of Grinnell Land, further north, we came upon shed antlers, but these may have been of considerable antiquity, whilst Lieutenant Giffard, R.N., found and brought to the ship a portion of an antler which he picked up in lat. 82° 45' N. It does not appear that the 'Polaris' Expedition observed any trace of the Reindeer in Hall Land, neither was it obtained there by our Expedition.

Phoca hispida.—The Ringed Seal was met with in most of the bays we entered during our passage up and down Smith Sound. It was the only species seen north of Cape Union, and which penetrates into the Polar Sea. Lieutenant Aldrich, R.N., during his autumn sledging in 1875, noticed a single example in a pool of water near Cape Joseph Henry, and a party which I accompanied in September, 1875, secured one in Dumbell Harbour, some miles north of the winter-quarters of the 'Alert': its stomach contained remains of crustaceans and annelids. In June of the following year I observed three or four of these animals on the ice of Dumbell Harbour. They had made holes in the bay ice that had formed in this protected inlet. The Polar pack was at this time of the year still firmly wedged against the shores of Grinnell Land, and so tightly packed in Robeson Channel that no Seal could by any possibility have worked its way into this inlet from outside. I am therefore quite satisfied that Phoca hispida is resident throughout the year in the localities mentioned. A female killed on the 23rd August, 1876, weighed sixty-five pounds.

Phoca barbata.—On several occasions while proceeding up Smith Sound I observed this large Seal. We did not see it north of Robeson Channel. Individuals were procured in Discovery Bay, lat. 81° 44' N., and also at Thank God Harbour, from whence it has been recorded by Dr. Bessels. As previously mentioned, I found the skulls of this animal in the ancient Eskimo settlements of Smith Sound. On the 31st August, 1876, Hans, the Greenlander on board the 'Discovery,' shot one of these Seals in Dobbin Bay. I was informed that it weighed 510 lbs. On taking off its skin an Eskimo harpoon was found buried in the blubber on its back; the socket of the dart was made of ivory, the blade being wrought iron. Hans pronounced it to be a Greenland harpoon-head, and suggested that the animal had been struck in the Danish settlements. P. grœnlandica is recorded by Dr. Bessels from Thank God Harbour, but I did not observe it in Smith Sound or northwards.

Trichechus rosmarus.—Kane and Hayes describe the Walrus as very abundant in the vicinity of Port Foulke, and the Eskimo of Etah no doubt capture a great number of them, as many skulls and bones of this animal are strewed about their settlement, which we found deserted in July, 1875. I came across a very well-finished sledge hid in a recess of the rocks near Etah, made entirely of Walrus bones, and shod with runners formed of pieces of the tusk, most carefully adjusted. Curiously enough, we did not see one of these animals in the vicinity of Port Foulke nor in Smith Sound, until we reached Franklin Pierce Bay. There, in the vicinity of Norman Lockyer Island, we saw several Walruses, and killed two or three. Their stomachs contained fragments of mya and saxicava, and a considerable quantity of a green oily matter. Near Cape Fraser I saw a single Walrus; but as far as my observation goes, it does not proceed further north than the meeting of the Baffin Bay and Polar tides near the above-mentioned Cape.

Balæna mysticetus.—A portion of the rib of a Greenland Whale was found by Lieutenant Egerton, R.N., on the northern shores of Grinnell Land, in lat. 82° 33' N. It was of great antiquity, but I am unprepared to advance any opinion as to how it got there. I am, however, quite satisfied on one point; and that is—no Whale could inhabit at the present day the frozen sea to the North of Robeson Channel. To penetrate from the north-water of Baffin Bay to Robeson Channel would be a hazardous task for this great animal, and in this opinion the experienced whaling quarter-masters who accompanied our Expedition coincided. We may dismiss from our minds the idea or hope that nearer to the Pole, and beyond the limits of present discovery, there may be haunts in the Polar Sea suitable for the Right Whale. I do not look for the speedy extinction of the Greenland Whale; but it is probable that in a few years the fishing will no longer prove profitable to the fine fleet of whalers that now sail from our northern ports, and I see no hope of Arctic discovery increasing our knowledge of the range of this animal.

Monodon monoceros.—During the month of August, while we were waiting in Payer Harbour, near Cape Sabine, we noticed several Narwhals playing at the edge of the ice, but we saw no more of them after entering the pack of Smith Sound. The range of the Narwhal in that direction is no doubt coincident with the summer extension of the north-water of Baffin Bay. It is not included by Dr. Bessels among the animals of Hall Land. An ancient tusk of the Narwhal was picked up by Lieut. Parr, R.N., on the shore of Grinnell Land, a little above the present sea-level, a few miles to the north of the winter-quarters of the 'Alert.'

 

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1. Concluded from p. 321.