discovered by any of our parties, neither westward along the northern shores of Grinnell Land, or eastward along the coasts of Greenland that border the Polar Basin. I am quite convinced that the men whose tracks we followed as far as the eighty-second degree never got round Cape Union. Even in the short summer of July and part of August animal life is too scarce there to support a party of travelling Eskimo, whilst the idea of winter residence is beyond consideration. In my opinion it is impossible for any Eskimo to have rounded the northern shores of the Greenland continent, and the presence of the tribe seen by Sabine and Clavering on the eastern coast of Greenland may easily be accounted for by their having rounded Cape Farewell from the westward. It is well known that formerly considerable numbers of Eskimo were living to the eastward of Cape Farewell, but year by year stragglers and small parties from these outside savages have re-entered the Danish colonies to the westward of Cape Farewell, and become absorbed amongst the civilized Greenlanders. This slow but steady return to the southward fully accounts for the German Polar Expedition of 1869–70 not meeting with the Eskimo tribe seen by Sabine on the east coast. The result of my observations amounts to this, that along the shores of Smith Sound, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel, three degrees north of the present extreme range of the Etah Eskimo, the most northern race of men known, there are to be found not only traces of Eskimo wanderings, but many proofs of former permanent habitation in places where under present climatic conditions it would be impossible for even the "Arctic Highlanders" now to exist.
Ursus maritimus.—There is little to tempt this animal from the comparatively rich hunting-fields of the north-water of Baffin Bay to the dreary shores of Smith Sound and northward. A single Bear was killed by Dr. Bessels, of the 'Polaris' Expedition, in Petermann Fiord, and foot-marks were observed by members of our Expedition near Thank God Harbour; and along the coast of Grinnell Land between the winter quarters of the 'Alert' and 'Discovery,' we also saw foot-marks in the neighbourhood of Cape Hayes. At the present day I do not imagine the White Bear ever enters the Polar Basin through Robeson Channel. The cranium of a very large example was found by Captain Markham on the northern shores of Grinnell Land in latitude 82° 30' N., some
