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The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

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176 TUE EUROPEAN ISLANDS OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN.consisting of SI plants common to Greenl<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> G9 found also in Sc<strong>and</strong>inavia.Of the various species there is only one edible, the Cochlearia fenestrate, which,beino- less bitter than <strong>its</strong> southern congeners, may be eaten as a salad, <strong>and</strong> alsosupplies a valuable preventive against scurvy.Including the cetacea, there are 16 species of mammals, of which 4 onlyare l<strong>and</strong> animals ; <strong>and</strong> even the white bear is rather nomadic than indigenous,Fig. 86.— Foul Bay, Spitzbeegen.passing on floating ice from isl<strong>and</strong> to isl<strong>and</strong>. <strong>The</strong> other l<strong>and</strong> mammals are thereindeer, a short-tailed rat like that found on the shores of Hudson Bay,<strong>and</strong> the arctic fox, hunted for <strong>its</strong> valuable fur. <strong>The</strong> reindeer was supposed tohave been introduced by the Russians or Sc<strong>and</strong>inavians ; but in 1610, long beforethey reached the archipelago, the English explorer, Jonas Poole, hunted the reindeer,<strong>and</strong> gave <strong>its</strong> name to Horn Sound, from the antlers of one of these annualswhich he there found. Between 1860 <strong>and</strong> 1868 as many as 3,000 were annually

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