APPENpiX. 501 



soft, brittle hair, like the reindeer. The ram carries very 

 large horns. 



Musk-ox. ( Ovibos moschatus Blainville.) F. B. A. 1. 



p. 275. 



This animal inhabits the barren lands, and the most 

 northern of Parry's Islands, but retires to the verge of 

 the woods in the depth of winter. It feeds, like the 

 rein-deer, chiefly on lichens ; and the meat of a well-fed 

 cow is agreeably tasted and juicy ; but that of a lean cow 

 and of the bull is strongly impregnated with a disagree- 

 able musky flavour, so as to be palatable only to a very 

 hungry man. The musk-ox does not now exist in 

 Greenland; and though extinct also in Siberia, bones 

 either of the American species, or of one very similar to 

 it, have been found there. 



American Bison. (Bos Americanus Gmelin.) 

 F. B. A. 1. p. 279. 



This ox has lately become well known in England 

 under the name of bonassus ; and specimens exist in the 

 Zoological Gardens, and in several parks. Its range in 

 the fur countries is restricted between the 1 th meridian 

 and the rocky mountains, and it does not go beyond the 

 62d parallel of latitude ; but it is on the prairie lands 

 only that the numberless herds noticed by authors are 

 to be seen. The pemmican, which is so useful, and in 

 fact almost essential, to the traveller through the fur 

 countries, is made principally of the meat of the bison. 

 The fleshy parts of the hind quarters are cut into very 

 thin slices, dried in the sun, and pounded. Two parts 

 of the pounded meat are then mixed with one of melted 



K K 3 



