THERE are no venomous serpents or insects, no ravenous wild beasts to be seen in Greenland, if you except the bear, which some will have to be an amphibious animal, as he lives chiefly upon the ice in the most Northern parts, and feeds upon seals and fish. He very seldom appears near the colony, in which I had taken up my quarters. He is of a very large size, and of a hideous and frightful aspect, with white long hairs: he is greedy of human blood[27]. The natives tell us moreover of another kind of ravenous beasts, which they call Amarok, which eagerly pursue other beasts, as well as men; yet none of them could say, they ever had seen them, but only had it from others by hearsay; and whereas none of our own people, who have travelled up and down the country, ever met with any such beast, therefore I take it to be a mere fable.

Rein deer are in some places in so great numbers that you will see whole herds of them[28]; and when they go and feed in herds they are dangerous to come at. The natives spend the whole summer season in hunting of rein deer, going up to the innermost parts of the bays, and carrying, for the most part, their wives and children along with them, where they remain till the harvest season comes on. In the mean while they with so much eagerness hunt, pursue, and destroy these poor deer, that they have no place of safety, but what the Greenlanders know; and where they are in any number, there they chase them by clap-hunting, setting upon them on all sides, and surrounding them with all their women and children, to force them into defiles and narrow passages, where the men armed lay in wait for them and kill them: and when they have not people enough to surround them, then they put up white poles (to make up the number that is wanted) with pieces of turf to head them, which frightens the deer, and hinders it from escaping.

There are also vast numbers of hares, which are white summer and winter, very fat and of a good taste. There are foxes of different colours, white, grey, and blueish; they are of a lesser size than those of Denmark and Norway, and not so hairy, but more like martens. The natives commonly catch them alive in traps, built of stones like little huts. The other four-footed animals, which ancient historians tell us are found in Greenland, are sables, martens, wolves, losses, ermins, and several others; I have met with none of them on the Western side.—See Arngrim Jonas’s History of Greenland; as also Ivarus Beni’s Relation, mentioned by Undalinus.

Tame or domestic animals there are none, but dogs in great numbers, and of a large size, with white hairs, or white and black, and standing ears. They are in their kind as timorous and stupid as their masters, for they never bay or bark, but howl only. In the Northern parts they use them instead of horses, to drag their sledges, tying four or six, and sometimes eight or ten to a sledge, laden with five or six of the largest seals, with the master sitting up himself, who drives as fast with them as we can do with good horses, for they often make fifteen German miles with them in a winter day, upon the ice: and though the poor dogs are of so great service to them, yet they do not use them well, for they are left to provide for and subsist themselves as wild beasts, feeding upon muscles thrown up on the sea side, or upon berries in the summer season; and when there has been a great capture of seals they give them their blood boiled and their entrails.

As for land fowls or birds, Greenland knows of none but rypper, which is a sort of large partridges, white in winter, and grey in summer time, and these they have in great numbers. Ravens seem to be domestic birds with them, for they are always seen about their huts, hovering about the carcases of seals, that lie upon the ground. There are likewise very large eagles, their wings spread out being a fathom wide, but they are seldom seen in the Northern parts of the country. You find here falcons or hawks, some grey, some of a whitish plumage, and some speckled; as also great speckled owls. There are different sorts of little sparrows, snow birds, and ice birds, and a little bird not unlike a linnet, which has a very melodious tune.

Amongst the insects of Greenland, the midge or gnats are the most troublesome, whose sting leaves a swelling and burning pain behind it; and this trouble they are most exposed to in the hot season, against which there is no shelter to be found. There are also spiders, flies, humble bees, and wasps. They know nothing of any venomous animals, as serpents and the like; nor have they any snakes, toads, frogs, beetles, ants, or bees; neither are they plagued with rats, mice, or any such vermin.